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LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

MRS.    MACKINLEY   HELM 


MRS.   HEMANS. 


LEA  &  BLANCHARD, 
PHILADELPHIA, 

WILL  SHORTLY  PUBLISH 
A  COMPLETE  AND  UNIFORM  EDITION 

OF 

MRS.  HEMANS'S  WORKS; 

TO  WHICH  IS  PREFIXED 

A  MEMOIR  BY  HER  SISTER, 
MRS.   HUGHES. 

In  Six  Volumes,  Royal  Duodecimo. 


PROSPECTUS. 

Prom  the  high  reputation  which  the  writings  of  Mrs.  Hemaxs 
have  attained,  and  from  the  influence  which  they  seem  destined 
to  exercise  over  the  public  mind,  alike  by  their  loftiness  of  senti- 
ment, by  their  purity  of  moral  and  religious  feeling,  and  by  their 
beauty  of  language,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  their  Author  has 
taken  a  permanent  place  amongst  the  Classics  of  Great  Britain. 
Hitherto  her  compositions  have  only  appeared  in  compact  vo- 
lumes, while  others  have  never  been  presented  in  an  acknow- 
ledged form.  The  Publishers  have,  therefore,  resolved  upon 
making  a  complete  and  uniform  edition  of  the  whole,  in  a  style 
similar  to  their  recent  issue  of  the  Poetical  Works  of  Scott,  and 
his  Life,  by  Lockhart. 

In  accomplishing  this  object  more  satisfactorily,  they  have 


deemed  it  of  importance  to  adhere,  in  some  measure,  to  the 
chronological  order  in  which  the  various  writings  of  Mrs. 
Hemans  appeared — that  the  developement  of  her  mind  may  be 
thus  more  distinctly  shown ;  and,  as  intellectual  efforts  formed 
its  epochs,  each  volume  will  open  with  one  or  other  of  her  more 
elaborate  productions.  It  is  also  here  proper  to  mention,  that 
such  of  her  MS.  relics,  as  her  literary  executors  think  fit  will  be 
now  for  the  first  time  submitted  to  the  public  eye. 


GENERAL  CONTENTS. 

Volume  I.,  consists  of  a  memoir  of  Mrs.  Hemans,  from  the 
pen  of  her  sister,  containing  authentic  records  of  her  life,  to- 
gether with  such  a  selection  from  her  correspondence  and  un- 
published writings,  as  .  most  accurately  convey  her  habits  of 
thought,  her  opinions  of  men  and  books,  and  her  own  literary 
plans  and  occupations — Wallace  and  Bruce.  It  also  compre- 
hends a  variety  of  extracts  from  her  juvenile  poetry. 

Volume  II. — Tales  and  historic  scenes. — The  restoration  of 
the  works  of  art  to  Italy. — Modern  Greece,  &c.,  &e. 

Volume  III. — The  Siege  of  Valencia. — The  Last  Constantine 
— The  Sceptic. — Greek  Songs. — W^elsh  Melodies,  &c.,  &c. 

Volume  IV. — The  Vespers  of  Palermo. — De  Chatillon,  a 
tragedy  (hitherto  unpublished). — The  Forest  Sanctuary. — Lays 
of  Many  Lands,  &c.,  &c. 

Volume  V. — Records  of  Woman. — Sebastian  of  Portugal. — 
Songs  of  the  Afiections,  and  Miscellaneous  Poems. 

Volume  VI. — Scenes  and  Hymns  of  Life, — Lyrics  and  Songs 
for  music. — Despondency  and  aspiration,  &c. 

*^*  A  specimen  of  the  type  and  size  of  page  is  here  presented. 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIF0R5JIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

ENGLAND    AND    SPAIN.  335 

Then  crowded  round  its  free  and  simple  race, 
Amazement  pictured  wild  on  ev'ry  face ; 
Who  deem'd  that  beings  of  celestial  birth, 
Sprung  from  the  sun,  descended  to  the  earth — 
Then  first  another  world,  another  sky, 
Beheld  Iberia's  banner  blaze  on  high ! 

Still  prouder  glories  beam  on  history's  page, 
Imperial  Charles  !  to  mark  thy  prosperous  age  • 
Those  golden  days  of  arts  and  fancy  bright. 
When  Science  pour'd  her  mild,  refulgent  light ; 
When  Painting  bade  the  glowing  canvas  breathe, 
Creative  Sculpture  claim'd  the  living  wreath ; 
When  roved  the  Muses  in  Ausonian  bowers. 
Weaving  immortal  crowns  of  fairest  flowers 
When  angel-truth  dispersed,  with  beam  divine. 
The  clouds  that  veil'd  religion's  hallow'd  shrine; 
Those  golden  days  beheld  Iberia  tower 
High  on  the  pyramid  of  fame  and  power; 
Vain  ail  the  efforts  of  her  numerous  foes. 
Her  might,  superior  still,  triumphant  rose. 
Thus,  on  proud  Lebanon's  exalted  brow, 
The  cedar,  frowning  o'er  the  plains  below 
Though  storms  assail,  its  regal  pomp  to  rend, 
Majestic,  still  aspires,  disdaining  e'er  to  bend! 

When  Gallia  pour'd,  to  Pavia's  trophied  plain, 
Her  youthful  knights,  a  bold,  impetuous  train ; 
When,  after  many  a  toil  and  danger  past. 
The  fatal  morn  of  conflict  rose  at  last ; 
That  morning  saw  her  glittering  host  combine. 
And  form  in  close  array  the  threat'ning  line; 


336  ENGLAND    AND    SPAIN. 

Fire  in  each  eye,  and  force  in  ev'ry  arm. 
With  hope  exulting,  and  with  ardour  warm; 
Saw  to  the  gale  their  streaming  ensigns  play, 
Their  armour  flashing  to  the  beam  of  day; 
Their  gen'rous  chargers  panting,  spurn  the  ground, 
Roused  by  the  trumpet's  animating  sound; 
And  heard  in  air  their  warlike  music  float. 
The  martial  pipe,  the  drum's  inspiring  note ! 

Pale  set  the  sun — the  shades  of  evening  fell. 
The  mournful  night-wind  rung  their  funeral  knell ; 
And  the  same  day  beheld  their  warriors  dead. 
Their  sovereign  captive,  and  their  glories  fled ! 
Fled,  like  the  lightning's  evanescent  fire. 
Bright,  blazing,  dreadful — only  to  expire ! 
Then,  then,  while  prostrate  Gaul  confess'd  her  might, 
Iberia's  planet  shed  meridian  light ! 
Nor  less,  on  famed  St.  Quintin's  deathful  day, 
Castilian  spirit  bore,  the  prize  away ; 
Laurels  that  still  their  verdure  shall  retain, 
And  trophies  beaming  high  in  glory's  fane ! 
And  lo !  her  heroes,  warm  with  kindred  flame. 
Still  proudly  emulate  their  fathers'  fame ; 
Still  with  the  soul  of  patriot-valour  glow, 
Still  rush  impetuous  to  repel  the  foe ; 
Wave  the  bright  faulchion,  lift  the  beamy  spear. 
And  bid  oppressive  Gallia  learn  to  fear ! 
Be  theirs,  be  theirs,  unfading  honour's  crown, 
The  living  amaranths  of  bright  renown ! 
Be  theirs  th'  inspiring  tribute  of  applause, 
Due  to  the  champions  of  their  country's  cause  ! 
Be  theirs  the  purest  bliss  that  virtue  loves. 
The  joy  when  conscience  whispers  and  approves! 


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HISTORICAL    SKETCHES 


OP 


STATESMEN 

WHO  FLOURISHED  IN 

THE  TIME  OF  GEORGE  III. 

TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED 

REMARKS  ON  PARTY,  AND  AN  APPENDIX. 
FIRST    SERIES. 


BY 

HENRY    LORD    BROUGHAM,    F.  R.  S., 

AND  MEMBER  OF  THE  NATIONAL  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.   II. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
LEA    AND    BLANCHARD, 

SUCCESSORS  TO  CAREY  AND  CO. 

1839. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  II. 

Mr.  Sheridan            ......  9 

Mr.  Windham    ------  19 

Mr.  Dundas 29 

Mr.  Erskine       ......  39 

Mr.  Perceval            ....--  51 

Lord  Grenville  ------  61 

Mr.  Grattan              ------  69 

Mr.  Wilberforce             -           -            -           -            -  79 

Mr.  Canning            --...-  89 

Sir  Samuel  Romilly       -            -            -            -            -  103 

Effects  of  Party        -            -           -           -            -           -  112 

Franklin 127 

Frederic  II.              -            -            -            -            -            -  135 

GustavusIII. 159 

The  Emperor  Joseph            .....  173 

The  Empress  Catherine              ....  187 


APPENDIX. 

I.  Note  on  this  Work  ....  203 

II.  Communication  respecting  Lord  Chatham         -  -  203 

III.  Letter  fi-om  Lady  Charlotte  Lindsay  on  Lord  North  204 

IV.  Statement  of  the  case  between  Queen  Elizabeth  and 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots  .  ,  -  .  212 


MR.  SHERIDAN. 


STATESMEN 


OF  THE 


TIMES    OF    GEORGE   III. 


MR.  SHERIDAN. 

Of  Mr.  Fox's  adherents  who  have  justly  been  named, 
the  most  remarkable  certainly  was  Mr.  Sheridan,  and 
with  all  his  faults,  and  all  his  failings,  and  all  his  de- 
fects, the  first  in  genius  and  greatest  in  power.  When 
the  illustrious  name  of  Erskine  appears  in  the  bright 
catalogue,  it  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  we  here  speak 
of  parliamentary  genius  and  political  power. 

These  sketches  as  naturally  begin  with  a  notice  of 
the  means  by  which  the  great  rhetorical  combatants 
were  brought  up,  and  trained  and  armed  for  the  con- 
flict, as  Homer's  battles  do  with  the  buckling  on  of 
armour  Etnd  other  notes  of  preparation,  when  he  brings 
his  warriors  forward  upon  the  scene.  Of  Mr.  Sheridan 
any  more  than  of  Mr.  Burke,  it  cannot  be  lamented,  as 
of  almost  all  other  English  statesmen,  that  he  came 
prematurely  into  public  life,  without  time  given  for 
preparation  by  study.  Yet  this  time  in  his  case  had 
been  far  otherwise  spent  than  in  Mr.  Burke's.  Though 
his  education  had  not  been  neglected,  for  he  was  bred 
at  Harrow,  and  with  Dr.  Parr,  yet  he  was  an  idle  and 
a  listless  boy,  learning  as  little  as  possible,  and  suffering 
as  much  wretchedness ;  an  avowal  which  to  the  end  of 
his  life  he  never  ceased  to  make,  and  to  make  in  a  very 


8  MR.  SHERIDAN. 

affecting  manner.     Accordingly,  he  brought  away  from 
school  a  very  slender  provision  of  classical  learning;  and 
his  taste  never  correct  or  chaste,  was  wholly  formed  by 
acquaintance  with  the  English  poets  and  dramatists,  and 
perhaps  a  few  of  our  more  ordinary  prose  writers ;  for 
in  no  other  language  could  he  read  with  any  thing  ap- 
proaching to  ease.     Of  those  poets,  he  most  professed 
to  admire  and  to  have  studied  Dryden :  he  plainly  had 
most  studied  Pope,  whom  he  always  vilified  and  always 
imitated.     But  of  dramatists  his  passion  evidently  was 
Congreve,   and   after  him  Vanburgh,   Farquhar,   even 
Wycherly  ;  all  of  whom  served  for  the  model,  partly 
even  for  the  magazine  of  his  own  dramatic  writings,  as 
Pope  did  of  his  verses.     "  The  Duenna,"  however,  is 
formed  after  the  fashion  of  Gay ;  of  whom  it  falls  further 
short  than  the  "  School  for  Scandal"  does  of  Congreve. 
That   his   plays   were  great  productions  for  any  age, 
astonishing  for   a   youth  of  twenty-three  and  twenty- 
five,  is  unquestionable.     Johnson  has  accounted  for  the 
phenomenon  of  Congreve,  at  a  still  earlier  period  of  life, 
showing  much  knowledge  of  the  world,  by  observing 
that,  on  a  close  examination,  his  dialogues  and  charac- 
ters might   have  been  gathered  from  books  "  without 
much  actual  commerce  with  mankind."    The  same  can 
hardly  be  said  of  the  "  School  for  Scandal ;"  but  the 
author  wrote   it  when   he  was   five   years  older  than 
Congreve  had  been  at  the  date  of  the  "  Old  Bachelor." 

Thus  with  an  ample  share  of  literary  and  dramatic 
reputation,  but  not  certainly  of  the  kind  most  auspicious 
for  a  statesman  ;  with  a  most  slender  provision  of  know- 
ledge at  all  likely  to  be  useful  in  political  affairs ;  with 
a  position  by  birth  and  profession  little  suited  to  com- 
mand the  respect  of  the  most  aristocratic  country  in 
Europe — the  son  of  an  actor,  the  manager  himself  of  a 
theatre — he  came  into  that  parliament  which  was  en- 
lightened by  the  vast  and  various  knowledge,  as  well  as 
fortified  and  adorned  by  the  more  choice  literary  fame 


'  MR.  SHERIDAX.  18 

of  a  Burke,  and  which  owned  the  sway  of  consummate 
orators  like  Fox  and  Pitt.  His  first  effort  was  unam- 
bitious, and  it  was  unsuccessful.  Aiming  at  but  a  low 
flight,  he  failed  in  that  humble  attempt.  An  experi- 
enced judge,  Woodfall,  told  him,  "  It  would  never  do;" 
and  counselled  him  to  seek  again  the  more  congenial 
atmosphere  of  Drurj^-lane.  But  he  was  resolved  that 
it  should  do;  he  had  taken  his  part;  and,  as  he  felt  the 
matter  was  in  him,  he  vowed  not  to  desist  till  "  he  had 
brought  it  out."  What  he  wanted  in  acquired  learning, 
and  in  natural  quickness,  he  made  up  by  indefatigable 
industry;  within  given  limits,  toward  a  present  object, 
no  labour  could  daunt  him;  no  man  could  work  for 
a  season  with  more  steady  and  unwearied  application. 
By  constant  practice  in  small  matters,  or  before  private 
committees,  by  diligent  attendance  upon  all  debates,  by 
habitual  intercourse  with  all  dealers  in  political  wares, 
from  the  chiefs  of  parties  and  their  more  refined  coteries 
to  the  providers  of  daily  discussion  for  the  public  and 
the  chroniclers  of  parliamentary  speeches,  he  trained 
himself  to  a  facility  of  speaking,  absolutely  essential  to 
all  but  first-rate  genius,  and  all  but  necessary  even  to 
that;  and  he  acquired  what  acquaintance  with  the  sci- 
ence of  politics  he  ever  possessed,  or  his  speeches  ever 
betrayed.  By  these  steps  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  first- 
rate  speaker,  and  as  great  a  debater  as  a  want  of  readi- 
ness and  need  for  preparation  would  permit. 

He  had  some  qualities  which  led  him  to  this  rank, 
and  which  only  required  the  habit  of  speech  to  bring 
them  out  into  successful  exhibition;  a  warm  ima- 
gination, though  more  prone  to  repeat  with  varia- 
tions the  combination  of  others,  or  to  combine  anew 
their  creations,  than  to  bring  forth  original  produc- 
tions; a  fierce,  dauntless  spirit  of  attack;  a  familiarity, 
acquired  from  the  dramatic  studies,  with  the  feelings  of 
the  heart  and  the  ways  to  touch  its  chords;  a  facility 
of  epigram  and  point,  the  yet  more  direct  gift  of  the 

VOL.  II.  2 


14  MR.  SHERIDAN. 

same  theatrical  apprenticeship;  an  excellent  manner, 
not  unconnected  with  that  experience;  and  a  depth  of 
voice  which  perfectly  suited  the  tone  of  his  declama- 
tion, be  it  invective,  or  be  it  descriptive,  or  be  it  im- 
passioned. His  wit,  derived  from  the  same  source,  or 
sharpened  by  the  same  previous  habits,  was  eminently 
brilliant,  and  almost  always  successful;  it  was  like  all 
his  speaking,  exceedingly  prepared,  but  was  skilfully 
introduced  and  happily  appHed;  and  it  was  well  min- 
gled also  with  humour,  occasionally  descending  to  farce. 
How  little  it  was  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  all  men 
were  aware  who  knew  his  habits;  but  a  singular  proof 
of  this  was  presented  by  Mr.  Moore  when  he  came  to 
write  his  life;  for  we  there  fmd  given  to  the  world, 
with  a  frankness  which  must  almost  have  made  their 
author  shake  in  his  grave,  the  secret  note-books  of  this 
famous  wit;  and  are  thus  enabled  to  trace  the  jokes,  in 
embryo,  with  which  he  had  so  often  made  the  walls  of 
St.  Stephen's  shake  in  a  merriment  excited  by  the 
happy  appearance  of  sudden  unpremeditated  effusion.* 

The  adroitness  with  which  he  turned  to  account  sud- 
den occasions  of  popular  excitement,  and  often  at  the 
expense  of  the  Whig  party,  generally  too  indifferent  to 
such  advantages,  and  too  insensible  to  the  damage  they 
thus  sustained  in  public  estimation,  is  well  known.     On 

*  Take  an  instance  from  this  author,  giving  extracts  from  the 
common-place  book  of  the  wit; — "He  employs  iiis  fancy  in  his  nar- 
rative, and  keeps  his  recollections  for  his  wit."  Again,  the  same 
idea  is  expanded  into — "  When  he  makes  his  jokes  you  applaud  the 
accuracy  of  his  memory,  and  'tis  only  when  he  states  his  facts  that 
you  admire  the  flights  of  his  imagination."  But  the  thought  was 
too  good  to  be  thus  wasted  on  the  desert  air  of  a  common-place  book. 
So  forth  it  came  at  the  expense  of  Kelly,  who,  having  been  a  composer 
of  music,  became  a  wine  merchant.  "  You  will,"  said  the  ready  wit, 
"import  your  music  and  compose  your  wine."  Nor  was  tliis  service 
exacted  from  the  old  idea  thought  sufficient — so  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons an  easy  and  apparently  off-hand  parenthesis  was  thus  filled  with 
it  at  Mr.  Dundas's  cost  and  charge  ("  who  generally  resorts  to  his  me- 
mory for  his  jokes,  and  to  his  imagination  for  his  facts.") 


MR,  SHERIDAN.  15 

the  mutiny  in  the  fleet,  he  was   beyond  all  question 
right;  on  the  French  invasion,  and  on  the  attacks  upon 
Napoleon,  he  was   almost   as    certainly  wrong;    but 
these  appeals  to  the  people  and  to  the  national  feelings 
of  the  house  tended  to  make  the  orator  well  received, 
if  they  added  little  to  the  statesman's  reputation;  and 
of  the  latter  character  he  w^as  not  ambitious.     His  most 
celebrated  speech  was  certainly  the  one  upon  the  "  Be- 
gum Charge  "  in  the  proceedings  against  Hastings;  and 
nothing  can  exceed  the  accounts  left  us  of  its  unprece- 
dented success.     Not  only  the  practice  then  first  began, 
which  has  gradually  increased  till  it  greets  every  good 
speech,  of  cheering,  on  the  speaker  resuming  his  seat, 
but  the  minister  besought  the  House  to  adjourn  the 
decision  of  the  question,  as  being  incapacitated  from 
forming  a  just  judgment   under  the  influence  of  such 
powerful  eloquence ;  while  all  men  on  all  sides  vied  with 
each  other  in  extolling  so  wonderful  a  performance. 
Nevertheless,  the  opinion  has  now  become  greatly  pre- 
valent, that  a  portion  of  this  success  was  owing  to  the 
speech  having  so  greatly  surpassed  all  the  speaker's 
former  eflbrts;  to  the  extreme  interest  of  the  tdpics 
which  the  subject  naturally  presented;  and  to  the  artist- 
hke  elaboration  and  beautiful  delivery  of  certain  fine 
passages,  rather  than  to  the  merits  of  the  whole.     Cer- 
tain it  is,  that  the  repetition  of  great  part  of  it,  pre- 
sented  in  the  short-hand  notes  of  the  speech  on  the 
same  charge  in  Westminster  Hall,  disappoints  every 
reader  who  has  heard  of  the  success  which  attended  the 
earlier  eflbrt.     In  truth,  Mr.  Sheridan's  taste  was  very 
far  from  being  chaste,  or  even,  moderately  correct;  he 
delighted  in  gaudy  figures;  he  was  attracted  by  glare; 
and  cared  not  whether  the  brilliancy  came  from  tin- 
sel or  gold,  from  broken  glass  or  pure  diamond;  he 
overlaid  his  thoughts  with  epigrammatic  diction;  he 
"  played  to  the  galleries,"  and  indulged  them,  of  course, 
with  an  endless  succession  of  clap-traps.     His  worst 


16  MR.  SHERIDAN. 

passages  by  far  were  those  which  he  evidently  preferred 
himself;  full  of  imagery  often  far-fetched,  oftener  gor- 
geous, and  loaded  with  point  that  drew  the  attention  of 
the  hearer  away  from  the  thoughts  to  the  words ;  and 
his  best  by  far  were  those  where  he  declaimed,  with  his 
deep  clear  voice,  though  somewhat  thick  utterance,  with 
a  fierce  defiance  of  some  adversary,  or  an  unappeasable 
vengeance  against  some  oppressive  act;  or  reasoned 
rapidly,  in  the  like  tone,  upon  some  plain  matter  of  fact, 
or  exposed  as  plainly  to  homely  ridicule  some  puerile 
sophism;  and  in  all  this,  his  admirable  manner  was  aid- 
ed by  an  eye  singularly  piercing,*  and  a  countenance 
which,  though  coarse,  and  even  in  some  features  gross, 
was  yet  animated  and  expressive,  and  could  easily 
assume  the  figure  of  both  rage,  and  menace,  and  scorn. 
The  few  sentences  with  which  he  thrilled  the  House  on 
the  liberty  of  the  press  in  1810  were  worth,  perhaps, 
more  than  all  his  elaborated  epigrams  and  forced 
fliowers  on  the  Begum  Charge,  or  all  his  denunciations 
of  Napoleon;  "whose  morning  orisons  and  evening 
prayers  are  for  the  conquest  of  England,  whether  he 
bends  to  the  God  of  Battles  or  worships  the  Goddess 
of  Reason;"t  certainly  far  better  than  such  pictures  of 
his  power,  as  his  having  "  thrones  for  his  watch-towers, 
kings  for  his  sentinels,  and  for  the  palisades  of  his 
castle,  sceptres  stuck  with  crowns."J  "  Give  them," 
said  he  in  1810,  and  in  a  far  higher  strain  of  eloquence, 
"  a  corrupt  House  of  Lords;  give  them  a  venal  House 
of  Commons;  give  them  a  tyrannical  Prince;  give  them 
a  truckling  Court, — and  let  me  but  have  an  unfettered 
press;  I  will  defy  them  to  encroach  a  hair's-breadth 
upon  the  liberties  of  England. "§  Of  all  his  speeches 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  most  powerful, 
as  the  most  chaste,  was  his  reply,  in  1805,  upon  the 

*  It  hud  the  singularity  of  never  winking. 

tl802,  tl807.  §1810. 


MR.  SHERIDAN.  17 

motion  which  he  had  made  for  repcaHng  the  Defence 
Act.  Mr.  Pitt  had  unwarily  thrown  out  a  sneer  at  his 
support  of  Mr.  Addington,  as  though  it  was  insidious. 
Such  a  stone,  cast  by  a  person  whose  house  on  that 
aspect  was  one  pane  of  glass,  could  not  fail  to  call  down 
a  shower  of  missiles;  and  they  who  witnessed  the  looks 
and  gestures  of  the  aggressor  under  the  pitiless  pelting 
of  the  tempest  which  he  had  provoked,  represent  it  as 
certain  that  there  were  moments  when  he  intended  to 
fasten  a  personal  quarrel  upon  the  vehement  and  im- 
placable dcclaimer.* 

When  the  just  tribute  of  extraordinary  admiration 
has  been  bestowed  upon  this  great  orator,  the  whole  of 
his  praise  has  been  exhausted.     As  a  statesman,  he  is 
without  a  place  in  any  class,  or  of  any  rank ;  it  would 
be  incorrect  and  flattering  to  call  him  a  bad,  or  a  hurt- 
ful, or  a  short-sighted,  or  a  middling  statesman;  he  was 
no  statesman  at  all.    As  a  party  man,  his  character  stood 
lower  than  it  deserved,  chiefly  from  certain  personal  dis- 
likes towards  him;  for,  with  the  perhaps  doubtful  excep- 
tion of  his  courting  popularity  at  his  party's  expense  on 
the  two  occasions  already  mentioned,  and  the  much  more 
serious  charge  against  him  of  betraying  his  party  in  the 
Carlton  House  negotiation  of  1812,  followed  by  his  extra- 
ordinary denial  of  the  facts  when  he  last  appeared  in  Par- 
liament, there  can  nothing  be  laid  to  his  charge  as  in- 
consistent with  the  rules  of  the  strictest  party  duty  and 
honour;  although  he  made  as  large  sacrifices  as  any 
unprofessional  man  ever  did  to  the  cause  of  a  long  and 
hopeless  Opposition,  and  was  often  treated  with  unme- 
rited coldness  and  disrespect  by  his  coadjutors.    But  as 
a  man,  his  character  stood  confessedly  low;  his  intem- 
perate habits,  and  his  pecuniary  embarrassments,  did  not 

♦  Mr,  Sheriden  wrote  this  speech  during  the  debate  at  a  coffee-house 
near  the  Hall;  and  it  is  reported  most  accurately  in  the  ParUamentary 
debates,  apparently  from  hi^  own  notes. 

2* 


18  MR.  SHERIDAN. 

merely  tend  to  imprudent  conduct,  by  which  himself 
alone  might  be  the  sufferer ;  they  involved  his  family 
in  the  same  fate;  and  they  also  undermined  those  prin- 
ciples of  honesty  which  are  so  seldom  found  to  survive 
fallen  fortunes,  and  hardly  ever  can  continue  the  orna- 
ment and  the  stay  of  ruined  circumstances,  when  the 
tastes  and  the  propensities  engendered  in  prosperous 
times  survive  through  the  ungenial  season  of  adversity. 
Over  the  frailties  and  even  the  faults  of  genius,  it  is  per- 
mitted to  draw  a  veil,  after  marking  them  as  much  as 
the  interests  of  virtue  require,  in  order  to  warn  against 
the  evil  example,  and  preserve  the  sacred  flame  bright 
and  pure  from  such  unworthy  and  unseemly  contami- 
nation. 


MR.  WINDHAM. 


MR.  WINDHAM. 


Among  the  members  of  his  party,  to  whom  we  have 
alluded  as  agreeing  ill  with  Mr.  Sheridan,  and  treating 
him  with  little  deference,  Mr.  Windham  was  the  most 
distinguished.  The  advantages  of  a  refined  classical 
education,  a  lively  wit  of  the  most  pungent  and  yet  ab- 
struse description,  a  turn  for  subtle  reasoning,  drawing 
nice  distinctions  and  pursuing  remote  analogies,  great 
and  early  knowledge  of  the  world,  familiarity  Avith  men 
of  letters  and  artists,  as  well  as  politicians,  with  Burke, 
Johnson,  and  Reynolds,  as  well  as  with  Fox  and  North, 
much  acquaintance  with  constitutional  history  and  prin- 
ciple, a  chivalrous  spirit,  a  noble  figure,  a  singularly 
expressive  countenance — all  fitted  this  remarkable  per- 
son to  shine  in  debate;  but  were  all,  when  put  together, 
unequal  to  the  task  of  raising  him  to  the  first  rank; 
and  were,  besides,  mingled  with  defects  which  exceed- 
ingly impaired  the  impression  of  his  oratory,  while  they 
diminished  his  usefulness  and  injured  his  reputation  as 
a  statesman.  For  he  was  too  often  the  dupe  of  his  own 
ingenuity;  which  made  him  doubt  and  balance,  and 
gave  an  oscitancy  fatal  to  vigour  in  council,  as  well  as 
most  prejudicial  to  the  efibcts  of  eloquence,  by  breaking 
the  force  of  his  blows  as  they  fell.  His  nature,  too, 
perhaps  owing  to  this  hesitating  disposition,  was  to  be  a 
follower,  if  not  a  worshipper,  rather  than  an  original 
thinker  or  actor;  as  if  he  felt  some  relief  under  the 
doubts  which  harassed  him  from  so  many  quarters,  in 
thus  taking  shelter  under  a  master's  wing,  and  devolving 
upon  a  less  scrupulous  balancer  of  conflicting  reasons, 
the  task  of  trimming  the  scales,  and  forming  his  opinions 
for  him.     Accordingly,  first  Johnson  in  private,  and 


iJ2  MR.  WINDHAM. 

afterwards  Burke  on  political  matters,  were  the  deities 
whom  he  adored;  and  he  adhered  manfully  to  the 
strong  opinions  of  the  latter,  though  oftentimes  pain- 
fully compelled  to  suppress  his  sentiments,  all  the  time 
that  he  took  counsel  with  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Grenville, 
who  would  only  consent  to  conduct  the  French  war 
upon  principles  far  lower  and  more  compromising  than 
those  of  the  great  anti-Jacobin  and  anti-Gallican  leader. 
But  when  untrammelled  by  oHicial  connexion,  and 
having  his  lips  sealed  by  no  decorum  or  prudence  or 
other  observance  prescribed  by  station,  it  was  a  brave 
sight  to  see  this  gallant  personage  descend  into  the  field 
of  debate,  panting  for  the  fraj'',  eager  to  confront  any 
man  or  any  number  of  men  that  might  prove  his  match, 
scorning  all  the  little  suggestions  of  a  paltry  discretion, 
heedless  of  every  risk  of  retort  to  which  he  might 
expose  himself,  as  regardless  of  popular  applause  as  of 
Court  favour,  na)'',  from  his  natural  love  of  danger  and 
disdain  of  every  thing  like  fear,  rushing  into  the  most 
offensive  expression  of  the  most  unpopular  opinions  with 
as  much  alacrity  as  he  evinced  in  braving  the  power  and 
daring  the  enmity  of  the  Crown.  Nor  was  the  style  of 
his  speaking  at  all  like  that  of  other  men's.  It  was  in 
the  easy  tone  of  familiar  conversation;  but  it  was  full  of 
nice  observation  and  profound  remark;  it  was  instinct 
with  classical  allusion;  it  was  even  over-informed  with 
philosophic  and  with  learned  reflection;  it  sparkled  v/ith 
the  finest  wit — a  wit  which  was  as  far  superior  to 
Sheridan's  as  his  to  the  gambols  of  the  Clown,  or  the 
movements  of  Pantaloon;  and  his  wit,  how  exuberant 
soever,  still  seemed  to  help  on  his  argument,  as  well  as 
to  illustrate  the  meaning  of  the  speaker.  He  was,  how- 
ever, in  the  main,  a  serious,  a  persuasive  speaker,  whose 
words  plainly  flowed  from  deep  and  vehement,  and  long 
considered,  and  well  weighed,  feelings  of  the  heart. 
Erat  summa  gravitas;  erat  cum  gravitate  junctus  face- 
tiarum  et  urbanitatis  oratorius  non  scurrilis  lepos.  Latine 


MR.  WINDHAM.  23 

loquendi  accurata  et  sine  molestia  diligens  elegantia. 
(Cic.  Brut.) 

The  rock  on  which  he  so  often  made  shipwreck  in  de- 
hate,  and  still  oftener  in  council  or  action,  was  that  love 
of  paradox,  on  which  the  tide  of  his  exuberant  inge- 
nuity naturally  carried  him,  as  it  does  many  others,  who, 
finding  so  much  more  may  be  said  in  behalf  of  an  unte- 
nable position  than  at  first  sight  appeared  possible  to 
themselves,  or  than  ordinary  minds  can  at  any  time  ap- 
prehend, begin  to  bear  with  the  erroneous  dogma,  and 
end  by  adopting  it.* 

"  They  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

So  he  was,  from  the  indomitable  bravery  of  his  disposi- 
tion, and  his  loathing  of  every  thing  mean,  or  that  sa- 
voured of  truckling  to  mere  power,  not  unfrequently  led 
to  prefer  a  course,  of  conduct,  or  a  line  of  argument,  be- 
cause of  their  running  counter  to  public  opinion  or  the 
general  feeling;  instead  of  confining  his  disregard  to 
popularity  within  just  bounds,  and  holding  on  his  course 
in  pursuit  of  truth  and  right,  in  spite  of  its  temporary 
disfavour  with  the  people.  With  these  errors  there  was 
generally  much  truth  mingled,  or  at  least  much  that 
was  manifestly  wrong  tinged  the  tenets  or  the  conduct  he 
was  opposing;  yet  he  was  not  the  less  an  unsafe  coun- 
cillor, and  in  debate  a  dangerous  ally.  His  conduct  on 
the  Volunteer  question,  the  interference  of  the  City  with 
Military  Rewards,  the  Amusements  of  the  People,  and 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  aflforded  instances  of  this  mixed  de- 
scription, where  he  was  led  into  error  by  resisting  almost 
equal  error  on  the  opposite  hand;  yet  do  these  questions 
also  aSbrd  proof  of  the  latter  part  of  the  foregoing  pro- 

*  They  who  have  been  engaged  in  professional  business  with  the 
late  Mr.  John  Clerk  (afterwards  Lord  Eldon,)  may  recollect  how  oflen 
that  great  lawyer  was  carried  away  to  entertain  paradoxical  opinions 
•exactly  by  the  process  here  described. 


24  MR.  WINDHAM. 

position;  for  what  sound  or  rational  view  could  justify 
his  hostility  to  all  voluntary  defence,  his  reprobation  of 
all  expression  of  public  gratitude  for  the  services  of  our 
soldiers  and  sailors,  his  unqualified  defence  of  bull-bait- 
ing, his  resistance  of  all  checks  upon  cruelty  towards  the 
brute  creation?  Upon  other  subjects  of  still  graver 
import  his  paradoxes  stood  prominent  and  mischievous; 
unredeemed  by  ingenuity,  unpalliated  by  opposite  exag- 
geration, and  even  unmitigated  by  any  admixture  of 
truth.  He  defended  the  Slave  Trade,  which  he  had  at 
first  opposed,  only  because  the  French  Royalists  were 
injured  by  the  revolt  which  their  own  follies  had  occa- 
sioned in  St.  Domingo;  he  resisted  all  mitigation  of  our 
Criminal  Law,  only  because  it  formed  a  part  of  our  anti- 
quated jurisprudence,  like  trial  by  battle,  na}'-  by  ordeal 
of  fire  and  water;  and  he  opposed  every  project  for 
Educating  the  People.  It  required  all  men's  tenderness 
towards  undoubted  sincerity  and  clear  disinterestedness 
to  think  charitabl}''  of  such  pernicious  heresies  in  such  a 
man.  It  demanded  all  this  charity  and  all  this  faith  in 
the  spotless  honour  of  his  character,  to  believe  that  such 
opinions  could  really  be  the  convictions  of  a  mind  like 
his.  It  was  the  greatest  tribute  which  could  be  paid  to 
his  sterling  merit,  his  fine  parts,  his  rare  accomplish- 
ments, and,  in  spite  of  such  wild  aberrations,  he  was 
still  admired  and  beloved. 

To  convey  any  notion  of  his  oratory  by  giving  pas- 
sages of  his  speeches  is  manifestly  impossible.  Of  the 
mixed  tenderness  and  figure  in  which  he  sometimes  in- 
dulged, his  defence  of  the  military  policy  pursued  by 
him  while  in  oflice  against  the  attempts  made  to  change 
it  the  year  after,  might  be  mentioned;  the  fine  speech, 
especially,  in  which,  on  taking  leave  of  the  subject,  after 
comparing  the  two  plans  of  recruiting  our  army  to  a 
dead  stick  thrust  into  the  ground  and  a  living  sapling 
planted  to  take  root  in  the  soil,  he  spoke  of  carving 
his  name  upon  the  tree  as  lovers  do  when  they  would 


MR.  WINDHAM.  26 

perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  their  passions  or  their 
misfortunes.     Of  his  happy  allusions  to  the  writings  of 
kindred  spirits,  an  example,  but  not  at  all  above  their 
average  merit,  is  afforded  in  his  speech  upon  the  peace 
of  Amiens,  when  he  answered  the  remarks  upon  the 
uselessness  of  the  Royal  title,  then  given  up,  of  King  of 
France,  by  citing  the  bill  of  costs  brought  in  by  Dean 
Swift  against  Marlborough,  and  the  comparative  ac- 
count of  the  charges  of  a  Roman  triumph,  where  the 
crown  of  laurel  is  set  down  at  twopence.     But  some- 
times he  would  convulse  the  House  by  a  happy,  start- 
ling, and  most  unexpected  allusion;  as  when,  on  the 
Walcheren   question,   speaking  of  a  coup-de-main  on 
Antwerp,  which  had  been  its  professed  object,  he  sud- 
denly said,  "A  coup-de-main  in  the  Scheldt !   You  might 
as  well  talk  of  a  coup-de-main  in  the  Court  of  Chance- 
ry."   Sir  William  Grant  having  just  entered  and  taken 
his  seat,  probably  suggested  this  excellent  jest;  and  as- 
suredly no  man  enjoyed  it  more.    His  habitual  gravity 
was  overpowered  in  an  instant,  and  he  was  seen  abso- 
lutely to  roll  about  on  the  bench  which  he  had  just  oc- 
cupied.    So  a  word  or  two,  artistly  introduced,  would 
often  serve  him  to  cover  the  adverse  argument  with  ri- 
dicule. When  arguing  that  they  who  would  protect  ani- 
mals from  cruelty  have  more  on  their  hands  than  they 
are  aware  of,  and  that  they  cannot  stop  at  prev^snting 
cruelty,  but  must  also  prohibit  killing,  he  was  met  by 
the  old  answer,  that  we  kill  them  to  prevent  tj«em  over- 
running the  earth,  and  then  he  said  in  passing,  and,  as 
it  were,  parenthetically — "  An  indifferent  rciason,  by  the 
way,  for  destroying  fish."     His  two  rwost  happy  and 
picturesque,  though  somewhat  caricatured,  descriptions 
of  Mr.  Pitt's  diction,  have  been  already  mentioned;  that 
it  was  a  state-paper  style,  and  thaHie  believed  he  could 
speak  a  King's  speech  off-hand.  His  gallantry  in  facing 
all  attacks  was  shown  daily;  a^id  how  little  he  cared  for 
allusions  to  the  offensive  expressions  treasured  up  against 

VOL  II.  3 


26  MR.  WINDHAM. 

him,  and  all  the  more  easily  remembered,  because  of 
the  epigrams  in  which  he  had  embalmed  them,  might 
be  seen  from  the  way  he  himself  would  refer  to  them, 
as  if  not  wishing  they  should  be  forgotten.  When  some 
phrase  of  his,  long  after  it  was  first  used,  seemed  to  in- 
vite attack,  and  a  great  cheer  followed,  as  if  he  had 
unwittingly  fallen  into  the  scrape,  he  stopped,  and  add- 
ed, "  Why,  I  said  it  on  purpose  !"  or,  as  he  pronounced 
it,  "a  purpose;"  for  no  man  more  delighted  in  the  old 
pronunciation,  as  well  as  the  pure  Saxon  idiom  of  our 
language,  which  yet  he  could  enrich  and  dignify  with 
the  importations  of  classical  phraseology. 

From  what  has  been  said  of  Mr.  Windham's  man- 
ner of  speaking,  as  well  as  of  his  variously  embellished 
mind,  it  will  readily  be  supposed  that  in  society  he  was 
destined  to  shine  almost  without  a  rival.  His  manners 
were  the  most  polished,  and  noble,  and  courteous,  with- 
out the  least  approach  to  pride,  or  affectation,  or  con- 
descension;  his  spirits  were,  in  advanced  life,  so  gay, 
that  he  was  always  younger  than  the  youngest  of  his 
company;  his  i^elish  of  conversation  was  such,  that 
after  lingering  to  the  latest  moment  he  joined  what- 
ever party  a  sultry  evening  (or  morning,  as  it  might 
chance  to  prove,)  tempted  to  haunt  the  streets  before 
retiring  to  rest.  How  often  have  we  accompanied  him 
to  the  door  of  his  own  mansion,  and  then  been  attended 
by  him  \n  our  own,  while  the  streets  rang  with  the  peals 
of  his  hearty  merriment,  or  echoed  the  accents  of  his 
refined  and  universal  wit!  But  his  conversation,  or 
grave,  or  gay, or  argumentative,  or  discursive;  whether 
sifting  a  diihcuit  subject,  or  painting  an  interesting  cha- 
racter, or  pursuing  a  merely  playful  fancy,  or  lively  to 
very  drollery,  or  ptnsive  and  pathetic,  or  losing  itself 
in  the  clouds  of  metaphysics,  or  vexed  with  paradox,  or 
plain  and  homely,  and  ill  but  common-place,  was  that 
which,  to  be  understood,  must  have  been  listened  to; 
and  while  over  the  whol&  was  flung  a  veil  of  unrent 


MR.  WINDHAM.  27 

classical  elegance,  through  no  crevice,  had  there  been 
any,  would  ever  an  unkind  or  ill-conditioned  sentiment 
have  found  entrance! 

"Scilicet  omne  sacrum  mors  importuna  profanat 
Omnibus  obscuras  injicit  ille  manus — 
Ossa  quieta  precor,  tuta  requiescite  in  urna; 
Et  sit  humus  cineri  non  onerosa  tuol"* 

*  Relentless  death  each  purer  form  profanes, 
Round  all  that's  fair  his  dismal  arms  he  throws — 
Light  lie  the  earth  that  shrouds  thy  loved  remains, 
And  softly  slumbering-  may  they  lasts  repose  1— 


MR.   DUN  DAS. 


MR.  DUNDAS. 


If  we  turn  from  those  whose  common  principles  and 
party  connexions  range  them  against  Mr.  Pitt,  to  the  only 
effectual  supporter  whom  he  could  rely  upon  as  a  col- 
league on  the  Treasury  Bench,  we  shall  certainly  find 
ourselves  contemplating  a  personage  of  very  inferior 
pretensions,  although  one  whose  powers  were  of  the  most 
useful  description.     Mr.  Dundas,  afterwards  Lord  Mel- 
ville, had  no  claim  whatever  to  those  higher  places  among 
the  orators  of  his  age,  which  were  naturally  filled  by 
the  great  men  whom  we  have  been  describing;  nor  in- 
deed could  he  be  deemed  inter  oralonim  numerum  at 
all.     He  was  a  plain,  business-like  speaker;  a  man  of 
every-day  talents  in  the  House;  a  clear,  easy,  fluent, 
and,  from  much  practice,  as  well  as  strong  and  natural 
sense,  a  skilful  debater;  successful  in  profiting  by  an 
adversary's  mistakes;  distinct  in  opening  a  plan,  and  de- 
fending a  Ministerial  proposition;  capable  of  producing 
even  a  great  effect   upon   his  not  unwilling  audience 
by  his  broad  and  coarse  appeals  to  popular  prejudices, 
and  his  confident  statements  of  fact — those  statements 
which    Sir   Francis   Burdett   once  happily  observed, 
"  men  fall  into  through  an  inveterate  habit  of  ofiicial 
assertion."     In  his  various  offices  no  one  was  more  use- 
ful.    He  was  an  admirable  man  of  business  ;  and  those 
professional  habits  which  he  had  brought  from  the  bar 
(where  he  practised  long  enough  for  a  youth  of  his  for- 
tunate family  to  reach  the  highest  official  place)  were 
not  more  serviceable  to  him  in  making  his  speeches  per- 
spicuous, and  his  reasoning  logical,  than  they  were  in 
disciplining  his  mind  to  the  drudgery  of  the  desk,  and 
helping  him  to  systematise,  as  well  as  to  direct,  the  ma- 
chinery of  his  department.     After  quitting  the  profes- 


32  MR.  DUNDAS. 

sion  of  the  law,  to  which,  indeed,  he  had  for  some  of  the 
later  years  of  Lord  North's  Administration  only  nomi- 
nally belonged,  and  leaving  also  the  office  of  Lord  Ad- 
vocate, which  he  retained  for  several  years  after,  he  suc- 
cessively filled  the  place  of  Minister  for  India,  for  the 
Home  and  War  Departments,  and  for  Naval  Affairs. 
But  it  was  in  the  first  of  these  capacities,  while  at  the 
head  of  the  India  Board,  and  while  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Commons  upon  India,  that  his  great 
capacity  for  affairs  shone  chiefly  forth :  and  that  he 
gave  solid  and  long-continued  proof  of  an  indefatigable 
industry,  which  neither  the  distractions  of  debate  in 
Parliament,  nor  the  convivial  habits  of  the  man  and  of 
the  times  ever  could  interrupt  or  relax.  His  celebrated 
Reports  upon  all  the  complicated  questions  of  our  Asia- 
tic policy,  although  they  may  not  stand  a  comparison 
with  some  of  Mr.  Burk's,  in  the  profundity  and  en- 
largement of  general  views,  any  more  than  their  style 
can  be  compared  with  his, are  nevertheless  performances 
of  the  greatest  merit,  and  repositories  of  information 
upon  that  vast  subject,  unrivalled  for  clearness  and  ex- 
tent. They,  together  with  Lord  Wellesley's  Despatches, 
form  the  sources  from  which  the  bulk  of  all  the  know- 
ledge possessed  upon  Indian  matters  is  to  be  derived  by 
the  statesmen  of  the  present  day. 

If  in  his  official  departments,  and  in  the  contests  of 
Parliament,  Mr.  Dundas  rendered  able  service,  and  pos- 
sessed great  weight,  it  was  in  Scotland,  his  native  coun- 
try, whose  language  he  spoke,  and  whose  whole  affairs 
he  directed,  that  his  power  and  his  authority  chiefly 
prevailed.  Before  the  reform  in  our  representation 
and  our  municipal  institutions,  the  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  patronage  by  a  leading  member  of  the  Go- 
vernment, was  very  sure  to  carry  along  with  it  a  para- 
mount influence,  both  over  the  representatives  of  this 
ancient  kingdom  and  over  their  constituents.  Why 
the  submission  to  men  in  high  place,  and  endowed  with 


MR.  DUNDAS.  33 

the  power  of  conferring  many  favours,  should  have  been 
so  much  more  absolute  in  the  northern  than  in  the  south- 
ern parts  of  our  island,  it  would  be  needless  to  inquire. 
Whether  it  arose  from  the  old  feudal  habits  of  the 
nation,  or  from  its  poverty,  joined  with  a  laudable  am- 
bition to  rise  in  the  world  above  the  pristine  station,  or 
from  the  wary  and  provident  character  of  the  people; 
certain  it  is  that  they  displayed  a  devotion  for  their 
political  superiors,  and  a  belief  in  their  infallibility, 
which  would  have  done  no  discredit  to  the  clansmen  of 
those  chieftains  who,  whilom  both  granted  out  the  lands 
of  the  sept,  retained  the  stipulated  services  of  the  vassal, 
and  enjoyed  the  rights  of  jurisdiction  and  of  punishment 
whereby  obedience  was  secured,  and  zealous  attachment 
stimulated  in  its  alliance  with  wholesome  terror. 

That  Mr.  Dundas  enjoyed  this  kind  of  ministerial  sove- 
reignty and  received  this  homage  in  a  more  ample  mea- 
sure than  any  of  his  predecessors,  was,  no  doubt,  owing 
partly  to  the  unhesitating  and  unqualified  determination 
which  regulated  his  conduct,  of  devoting  his  whole 
patronage  to  the  support  of  his  party,  and  to  the  extent 
of  that  patronage,  from  his  being  so  long  Minister  for 
India,  as  well  as  having  the  whole  Scottish  preferment 
at  his  absolute  disposal;  but  it  was  also  in  part  owing 
to  the  engaging  qualities  of  the  man.  A  steady  and 
determined  friend,  who  only  stood  the  faster  by  those 
that  wanted  him  the  more;  nay,  who  even  in  their 
errors  or  their  faults  would  not  give  up  his  adherents: 
an  agreeable  companion,  from  the  joyous  hilarity  of  his 
manners;  void  of  all  afiectation,  all  pride,  all  preten- 
sion; a  kind  and  affectionate  man  in  the  relations  of 
private  life;  and  although  not  always  sufficiently  re- 
gardful of  strict  decorum  in  certain  particulars,  yet 
never  putting  on  the  Pharisee's  garb,  or  affecting  a 
more  "gracious  state"  than  he  had  attained;  friendly, 
self-denying  to  those  inferiors  in  his  department  whose 
comforts  so  much  depended  upon  him;  in  his  demeanour 


34  MR.  DUNDAS. 

hearty  and  good-humoured  to  all — it  is  difficult  to  figure 
any  one  more  calculated  to  win  over  those  whom  his 
mere  power  and  station  had  failed  to  attach;  or  better 
fitted  to  retain  the  friends  whom  accident  or  influence 
might  originally  have  attached  to  his  person.  That  he 
should  for  so  many  years  have  disposed  of  the  votes  in 
Parliament  of  nearly  the  whole  Scottish  commoners, 
and  the  whole  Peers,  was,  therefore,  little  to  be  won- 
dered at;  that  his  popularity  and  influence  in  the  coun- 
try at  large  should  have  been  boundless  during  all  this 
period,  is  as  easily  to  be  understood.  There  was  then 
no  doubt  ever  raised  of  the  ministry's  stability,  or  of 
Mr.  Dundas's  ample  share  in  the  dispensation  of  its 
favours.  The  political  sky  was  clear  and  settled  to  the 
very  verge  of  the  horizon.  There  was  nothing  to  dis- 
turb tbe  hearts  of  anxious  mortals.  The  wary  and 
pensive  Scot  felt  sure  of  his  election,  if  he  but  kept  by 
the  true  faith;  and  his  path  lay  straight  before  him — the 
path  of  righteous  devotion  leading  unto  a  blessed  pre- 
ferment. But  our  Northern  countrymen  were  fated  to 
be  visited  by  some  troubles.  The  heavens  became  over- 
cast; their  luminary  was  for  a  while  concealed  from 
devout  eyes;  in  vain  they  sought  him,  but  he  was  not. 
Uncouth  names  began  to  be  named.  More  than  two 
parties  were  talked  of.  Instead  of  the  old,  convenient, 
and  intelligible  alternative  of  "  Pitt  or  Fox " — "place  or 
poverty," — which  left  no  doubt  in  any  rational  mind 
which  of  the  two  to  choose,  there  was  seen — strange 
sight! — hateful  and  perplexing  omen! — a  Ministry  with- 
out Pitt,  nay,  without  Dundas,  and  an  Opposition  lean- 
ing towards  its  support.  Those  who  are  old  enough 
to  remember  that  dark  interval,  may  recollect  how  the 
public  mind  in  Scotland  was  subdued  with  awe,  and 
how  men  awaited  in  trembling  silence  the  uncertain 
event,  as  all  living  things  quail  during  the  solemn  pause 
that  precedes  an  earthquake. 

It  was  in  truth  a  crisis  to  try  men's  souls.     For  a 


MR.  DUNDAS.  35 

while  all  was  uncertainty  and  consternation;  all  were 
seen  fluttering  about  like  birds  in  an  eclipse  or  a 
thunder-storm;  no  man  could  tell  whom  he  might 
trust;  nay,  worse  still,  no  man  could  tell  of  whom  he 
might  ask  any  thing.  It  was  hard  to  say,  not  who 
were  in  office,  but  who  were  likely  to  remain  in  office. 
All  true  Scots  were  in  dismay  and  distraction.  It 
might  truly  be  said  they  knew  not  which  way  to  look, 
or  whither  to  turn.  Perhaps  it  might  be  yet  more 
truly  said,  that  they  knew  not  when  to  turn.  But  such 
a  crisis  was  too  sharp  to  last;  it  passed  away;  and  then 
was  to  be  seen  a  proof  of  Mr.  Dundas's  power  amongst 
his  countrymen,  which  transcended  all  expectation, 
and  almost  surpassed  belief,  if  indeed  it  is  not  rather 
to  be  viewed  as  an  evidence  of  the  acute  fore-sight — 
the  political  second-sight — of  the  Scottish  nation. 
The  trusty  band  in  both  Houses  actually  were  found 
adhering  to  him  against  the  existing  Government;  nay, 
he  held  the  proxies  of  many  Scottish  peers  in  open 
opposition!  Well  might  his  colleague  exclaim  to  the 
hapless  Addington  in  such  unheard-of  troubles,  "  Doc- 
tor, the  Thanes  fly  from  us!"  When  the  very  Scotch 
Peers  wavered,  and  when  the  Grampian  hills  might 
next  be  expected  to  move  about,  it  was  time  to  think 
that  the  end  of  all  things  was  at  hand;  and  the  return 
of  Pitt  and  security,  and  patronage  and  Dundas,  spee- 
dily ensued  to  bless  old  Scotland,  and  reward  her  pro- 
vidence or  her  tidelity — her  attachment  at  once  to  her 
patron,  and  to  herself. 

The  subject  of  Lord  Melville  cannot  be  left  complete 
without  some  mention  of  the  event  which  finally  de- 
prived him  of  place  and  of  power,  though  it  hardly 
ever  lowered  him  in  the  respect  and  afTections  of  his 
countrymen.  We  allude,  of  course,  to  the  Resolutions 
carried  by  Mr.  Whitbread  on  the  8th  of  April,  1805, 
with  the  Speaker's  casting  voice,  which  led  to  the  im- 
mediate resignation,  and  subsequent  impeachment  of 


36  MR.  DUNDAS. 

this  distinguished  person.  Mr.  Pitt  defended  him  stre- 
nuously, and  only  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  friend 
and  colleague,  by  the  vote  of  the  Commons,  which 
gave  him  a  "  bitter  pang,"  that  as  he  pronounced 
the  word  made  the  hall  resound,  and  seems  yet  to 
fill  the  ear.  But  after  his  death,  while  the  Govern- 
ment was  in  his  rival's  hands,  and  all  the  offices  of  the 
State  were  filled  with  the  enemies  of  the  accused, 
Lord  Melville  was  brought  to  trial  before  his  Peers,  and 
by  a  large  majority  acquitted,  to  the  almost  universal 
satisfaction  of  the  country.  Have  we  any  right  to 
regard  him  as  guilty  after  this  proceeding?  It  is  true 
that  the  spirit  of  party  is  charged  with  the  event  of 
this  memorable  trial;  but  did  nothing  of  that  spirit 
preside  over  the  proceedings  in  the  Commons,  the 
grand  inquest  of  the  nation,  which  made  the  present- 
ment, and  put  the  accused  upon  his  trial?  That  Lord 
Melville  was  a  careless  man  and  wholly  indifferent 
about  money,  his  whole  life  had  shown.  That  he  had 
replaced  the  entire  sum  temporarily  used,  was  part 
even  of  the  statement  which  charged  him  with  mis- 
employing it.  That  Mr.  Pitt,  whom  no  one  ever  ac- 
cused of  corruption,  had  been  a  party  to  two  of  his 
supporters  using  four  times  as  much  of  the  public 
money  for  a  time,  and  without  paying  interest,  was 
soon  after  proved;  though  for  the  purpose  of  pressing 
more  severely  upon  Lord  Melville,  a  great  alacrity  was 
shown  to  acquit  the  Prime  Minister,  by  way  of  forming 
contrast  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  Navy.  In  a  word,  the 
case  proved  against  him  was  not  by  any  means  so  clear 
as  to  give  us  the  right  to  charge  the  great  majority  of 
his  Peers  with  corrupt  and  dishonourable  conduct  in 
acquitting  him;  while  it  is  a  known  fact  that  the 
Judges  who  attended  the  trial  were,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Lord  Chief  Justice,  all  clearly  convinced  of  his 
innocence.  Nor,  let  it  be  added,  would  the  charge 
against  him  have  been  deemed,  in  the   times  of  the 


MR.  DUNDAS.  37 

Harleys  and  the  Walpoles,  of  a  nature  to  stain  his 
character.  Witness  Walpolc  rising  to  supreme  power 
after  being  expelled  the  House  of  Commons  for  cor- 
ruption; and  after  having  only  urged  in  his  own  de- 
fence, that  the  thousand  pounds  paid  to  him  by  a  con- 
tractor had  been  for  the  use  of  a  friend,  whom  he 
desired  to  favour,  and  to  whom  he  had  paid  it  all  over; 
not  to  mention  his  having  received  above  seventeen 
thousand  pounds,  under  circumstances  of  the  gravest 
suspicion  the  day  before  he  quitted  office,  and  which 
he  never  seems  to  have  accounted  for,  except  by  saying 
he  had  the  King's  authority  to  take  it.*  It  is  very 
certain  that  these  remarks  will  give  little  satisfaction  to 
those  whose  political  principles  have  always  kept  them 
apart  from,  and  inimical  to    Lord    Melville.     But  to 

*  Mr.  Coxe,  in  his  life  of  Walpole,  cannot,  of  course,  put  the  de- 
fence on  higher  ground  than  Walpole  himself  took,  as  to  the  lOOOZ. 
received  on  the  contract,  in  ]  711,  when  he   was  Secretary  at  War. 
As  to  the  sum  reported    by  the    House    of   Commons'    Committee 
(17,461/.)  to  have  been  obtained  by  him  in  1712,  on  the  authority  of 
two  Treasury   orders,    the  biographer's  main  argument  is,   that  the 
money  must  have  been  immediately  wanted  for  the  public  purposes, 
though  these  never  were  particularised,  and  that  the  king  must  have 
approved*  of  the  draft,  because  lie   signed  the  warrants.     A  weaker 
defence  cannot  well  be  conceived;  nor  is  it  much  aided  by  the  asser- 
tion which  follows,  that  Sir  Robert    began  writing  a  vindication  of 
himself,  which  he  broke  off  "  on   a   conviction  that  his   answer  must 
either  have  been  materially  defective,  or  ho  must  have  related  many 
things  highly  improper  to  be  exposed  to  the  public."     The  fact  of  a 
man,  with  an  estate  of  about  20001.  a-year  at  first,  and  which  never 
rose  to  much  above  4000L,  having  lived  extravagantly,  and  amassed 
above  200,000/.,  is  not  at  all  explained  by  Mr.  Coxe;  and  it  is  mainly 
on  this  expensive  living  and  accumulation  of  fortune,  that  the  suspi- 
cions which  hang  over  his  memory  rest.     But  it  is  needless  to  say 
more  upon  a  topic  which  could  form  no  justification  of  Lord  Melville, 
if  he  were  guilty.     The  subject  is  only  alluded  to  in  this  place  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  how  much  more  pure  our  public  men  now  are, 
and  how  much  higher  is  our  standard  of  official  virtue.     The  acquittal 
of  Lord  Melville  was  deemed  insufficient  to  sanction  his  restoration 
to  office ;  although  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  without  any  attempt  to  rescind 
the  vote  of  1712,  was  afterwards  advanced  to  the  place  of  Prime  Minis- 
ter, and  held  it  for  twenty  years, 

VOL.  II.  4 


38  MR.  DUNDAS. 

what  purpose  have  men  lived  for  above  thirty  years 
after  the  trial,  and  survived  the  object  of  the  charge 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  if  they  cannot  now, 
and  upon  a  mere  judicial  question,  permit  their  judg- 
ments to  have  a  free  scope, — deciding  calmly  upon 
events  that  belong  to  the  history  of  the  past,  and  in- 
volve the  reputation  of  the  dead? 


MR.   ERSKINE. 


MR.  ERSKINE. 


The  Ministry  of  Mr.  Pitt  did  not  derive  more  solid 
service  from  the  Bar  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Dundas,  than 
the  Opposition  party  did  ornament  and  popularity  in  that 
ofMr.  Erskine.  His  Parliamentary  talents,  although  they 
certainly  have  been  underrated,  were  as  clearly  not  the 
prominent  portion  of  his  character.  Nevertheless,  it 
must  be  admitted  that,  had  he  appeared  in  any  other 
period  than  the  age  of  the  Foxes,  the  Pitts,  and  the 
Burkes,  there  is  little  chance  that  he  would  have  been 
eclipsed  even  as  a  debater;  and  the  singular  eloquence 
and  powerful  effect  of  his  famous  speech  against  the 
Jesuits'  Bark  Bill  in  the  House  of  Lords*  abundantly 
proves  this  position.  He  never  appears  to  have  given  his 
whole  mind  to  the  practice  of  debating;  he  had  a  very 
scanty  provision  of  political  information;  his  time  was  al- 
ways occupied  with  the  laborious  pursuits  of  his  pro- 
fession ;  he  came  into  the  House  of  Commons,  where  he 
stood  among  several  equals,  and  behind  some  superiors 
from  a  stage  where  he  shone  alone,  and  without  a  rival; 
above  all,  he  was  accustomed  to  address  a  select  and 
friendly  audience,  bound  to  lend  him  thier  patient  atten- 
tion, and  to  address  them  by  the  compulsion  of  his  retain- 
er, not  as  a  volunteer  coming  forward  in  his  own  person; 
a  position  from  which  the  transition  is  violent  and  ex- 
treme, to  that  of  having  to  gain  and  to  keep  a  promiscu- 
ous and,  in  great  part,  hostile  audience,  not  under  any 
obligation  to  listen  one  instant  beyond  the  time  during 
which  the  speaker  can  flatter,  or  interest, or  amuse  them. 
Earlier  practice  and  more  devotion  to  the  pursuit,  would 
doubtless  have  vanquished  all  these  disadvantages  ;  but 

*  1808, 

4* 


42  MR.  ERSKINE, 

they  sufficed  to  keep  Mr.  Erskine  always  in  a  station' 
far  beneath  his  talents,  as  long  as  he  remained  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

It  is  to  the  forum,  and  not  the  Senate,  that  we  must 
hasten,  if  we  would  witness  the  "  coronam  multiplicem, 
judicium  erectum,  crebras  assensiones,  multas  admira- 
tiones,  risum  cum  velit,  cum  velit  fletum,  in  Scena 
Roscium;"  in  fine,  if  we  should  see  this  great  man  in 
his  element,  and  in  his  glory.  Nor  let  it  be  deemed 
trivial,  or  beneath  the  historian's  province,  to  mark  that 
noble  figure,  every  look  of  whose  countenance  is  expres- 
sive, every  motion  of  whose  form  graceful;  an  eye  that 
sparkles  and  pierces,  and  almost  assures  victory,  while 
it  "  speaks  audience  ere  the  tongue."  Juries  have 
declared  that  they  felt  it  impossible  to  remove  their 
looks  from  him  when  he  had  riveted,  and,  as  it  were, 
fascinated  them  by  his  first  glance;  and  it  used  to  be  a 
common  remark  of  men  who  observed  his  motions,  that 
they  resembled  those  of  a  blood-horse;  as  light,  as 
limber,  as  much  betokening  strength  and  speed,  as  free 
from  all  gross  superfluity  or  incumbrance.  Then  hear 
his  voice  of  surpassing  sweetness,  clear,  flexible,  strong, 
exquisitely, fitted  to  strains  of  serious  earnestness,  defi^ 
cient  in  compass,  indeed,  and  much  less  fitted  to  express 
indignation  or  even  scorn  than  pathos,  but  wholly  free 
from  either  harshness  or  monotony.  All  these,  however, 
and  even  his  chaste,  dignified,  and  appropriate  action, 
were  very  small  parts  cf  this  wonderful  advocate's  ex- 
cellence. He  had  a  thorough  knowledge  of  men — 
of  their  passions  and  their  feelings — he  knew  every 
avenue  to  the  heart,  and  could  at  will  make  all  its 
chords  vibrate  to  his  touch.  His  fancy,  though  never 
playful  in  public,  where  he  had  his  whole  faculties 
under  the  most  severe  control,  was  lively  and  brilliant; 
when  he  gave  it  vent  and  scope,  it  was  eminently 
sportive ;  but  while  representing  liis  client,  it  was 
wholly  subservient  to  that  in  which  his  whole  soul  was- 


MR.  ERSKINE.  43 

wrapped  up,  and  to  which  each  faculty  of  body  and  of 
mind  was  subdued,  the  success  of  the  cause.  His  argu- 
mentative powers  were  of  the  highest  order;  clear  in 
his  statements,  close  in  his  applications,  unwearied  and 
never  to  be  diverted  in  his  deductions;  with  a  quick  and 
sure  perception  of  his  point,  and  undeviating  in  the  pur- 
suit of  whatever  established  it;  endued  with  a  nice  dis- 
cernment of  the  relative  importance  and  weight  of  dif- 
ferent arguments,  and  the  faculty  of  assigning  to  each  its 
proper  place,  so  as  to  bring  forward  the  main  body  of 
the  reasoning  in  bold  relief,  and  with  its  full  breadth, 
and  not  weaken  its  effect  by  distracting  and  disturbing 
the  attention  of  the  audience  among  lesser  particulars. 
His  understanding  was  eminently  legal;  though  he  had 
never  made  himself  a  great  lawyer,  yet  could  he  conduct 
a  purely  legal  argument  with  the  most  perfect  success; 
and  his  familiarity  wilii  all  the  ordinary  matters  of  his 
profession  was  abundantly  sufficient  for  the  purposes 
of  the  forum.  His  memory  was  accurate  and  retentive 
in  an  extraordinary  degree;  nor  did  he  ever,  during 
the  trial  of  a  cause,  forget  any  matter,  how  trifling 
soever,  that  belonged  to  it.  His  presence  of  mind  was 
perfect  in  action,  that  is,  before  the  jury,  when  a  line 
is  to  be  taken  upon  the  instant,  and  a  question  risked  to 
a  witness,  or  a  topic  chosen  with  the  tribunal,  on  which 
the  whole  fate  of  the  cause  may  turn.  No  man  made 
fewer  mistakes;  none  left  so  few  advantages  unim- 
proved; before  none  was  it  so  dangerous  for  an  adver- 
sary to  slumber  and  be  off  his  guard;  for  he  was  ever 
broad  awake  himself,  and  was  as  adventurous  as  he 
was  skilful;  and  as  apt  to  take  advantage  of  any  the 
least  opening,  as  he  was  cautious  to  leave  none  in  his 
own  battle. 

But  to  all  these  qualities  he  joined  that  fire,  that 
spirit,  that  courage,  which  gave  vigour  and  direc- 
tion to  the  whole,  and  bore  down  all  resistance.  No 
man,    with    all    his   address    and    prudence,    ever    ad- 


44  MR.  ERSKINE. 

ventured  upon  more  bold  figures,  and  they  were  uni- 
formly successful;  for  his  imagination  was  vigorous 
enough  to  sustain  any  flight;  his  taste  was  correct,  and 
even  severe,  and  his  execution  felicitous  in  the  highest 

degree.     Without   much  familiar   knowledge  of  even 

•  •  •  1 

the  Latin  classics;  with  hardly  any  access  to  the  beau- 
ties of  the  Attic  eloquence,  whether  in  prose  or  verse; 
with  no  skill  in  modern  languages,  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  English  tongue  was  yet  so  perfect,  and 
his  taste  so  exquisite,  that  nothing  could  exceed  the 
beauty  of  his  diction,  whatever  subject  he  attempted; 
whether  discoursing  on  the  most  humble  topics,  of  the 
most  ordinary  case  in  court  or  in  society,  or  defending 
men  for  their  lives,  under  the  persecution  of  tyrannical 
power,  wrestling  against  the  usurpations  of  Parliament 
in  favour  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  upholding 
against  the  assaults  of  the  infidel  the  fabric  of  revealed 
religion.  Indeed  the  beauty,  as  well  as  chaste  sim- 
plicity, of  the  language  in  which  he  would  clothe  the 
most  lowly  subjects  reminded  the  classical  scholar  of 
some  narratives  in  the  Odyssey,  where  there  is  not  one 
idea  that  rises  above  the  meanest  level,  and  yet  all  is 
made  graceful  and  elegant  by  the  magic  of  the  diction. 
Aware  that  his  classical  acquirements  were  so  slender, 
men  oftentimes  marvelled  at  the  phenomenon  of  his 
eloquence,  above  all,  of  his  composition.  The  solution 
of  the  difficulty  lay  in  the  constant  reading  of  the  old 
English  authors  to  which  he  devoted  himself;  Shak- 
speare  he  was  more  familiar  with  than  almost  any  man 
of  his  age;  and  Milton  he  nearly  had  by  heart.  Nor 
can  it  be  denied  that  the  study  of  the  speeches  in 
"  Paradise  Lost,"  is  as  good  a  substitute  as  can  be 
found  for  the  immortal  originals  in  the  Greek  models, 
upon  which  those  great  productions  have  manifestly 
been  formed. 

Such   was    his    oratory;    but    oratory   is    only   the 
half,  and  the  lesser  half  of  the  JVisi  Prius  advocate; 


MR.  ERSKINE.  45 

and  Mr.  Erskine  never  was  known  to  fail  in  the  more 
important  moiety  of  the  part  he  had  to  sustain.  The 
entire  devotion  to  his  cause  which  made  him  reject 
every  thing  that  did  not  help  it  forward,  and  indignantly 
scorn  all  temptations  to  sacrifice  its  smallest  point  for 
any  rhetorical  triumph,  was  not  the  only  virtue  of  his 
advocacy.  His  judgment  was  quick,  sound,  and  sure, 
upon  each  successive  step  to  be  taken;  his  decision 
bold,  but  cautious  and  enlightened,  at  each  turn.  His 
speaking  was  hardly  more  perfect  than  his  examination 
of  witnesses,  the  art  in  which  so  much  of  an  English 
advocate's  skill  is  shown!  and  his  examination-in-chief 
was  as  excellent  as  his  cross-examination ;  a  department 
so  apt  to  deceive  the  vulgar,  and  which  yet  is,  generally 
speaking,  far  less  available,  as  it  hardly  ever  is  more 
difficult  than  the  examination-in-chief,  or  in  reply.  In 
all  these  various  functions,  whether  of  addressing  the 
jury,  or  urging  objections  to  the  court,  or  examining 
his  own  witnesses,  or  cross-examining  his  adversary's, 
this  consummate  advocate  appeared  to  fill  at  one  and 
the  same  time  different  characters;  to  act  as  the  counsel 
and  representative  of  the  party,  and  yet  to  be  the  very 
party  himself;  while  he  addressed  the  tribunal,  to  be 
also  acquainted  with  every  feeling  and  thought  of  the 
judge  or  the  jury;  while  he  interrogated  the  witness, 
whether  to  draw  from  him  all  he  knew  and  in  the  most 
favourable  shape,  or  to  shake  and  displace  all  he  had 
said  that  was  adverse,  he  appeared  to  have  entered  into 
the  mind  of  the  person  he  was  dealing  with,  and  to  be 
familiar  with  all  that  was  passing  within  it.  It  is  by 
such  means  that  the  hearer  is  to  be  moved,  and  the  truth 
ascertained  ;  and  he  will  ever  be  the  most  successful  ad- 
vocate who  can  approach  the  nearest  to  this  lofty  and 
diflScult  position. 

The  speeches  of  this  great  man  are  preserved  to  us 
with  a  care  and  correctness  which  those  only  of  Mr. 
Burke,  Mr.  Windham,  Mr.  Canning,  and  Lord  Dudley, 


46  MR.  ERSKINE- 

among  all  the  orators  of  whom  this  work  treats,  can 
boast.  He  had  a  great  facility  of  composition;  he  wrote 
both  much  and  correctly.  The  five  volumes  which  remain 
were  all  revised  by  himself;  most  of  them  at  the  several 
times  of  their  first  publication.  Mr.  Windham,  too,  is 
known  to  have  left  most  of  his  speeches  written  out  cor- 
rectly in  his  own  hand.  The  same  care  was  bestowed 
upon  their  speeches  by  the  others  just  named.  Neither 
those  of  Mr.  Fox  or  Mr.  Pitt,  nor,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, of  Mr.  Sheridan,  ever  enjoyed  the  same  advantages; 
and  a  most  unfair  estimate  would  therefore  be  formed  of 
their  eloquence,  as  compared  with  that  of  others,  were 
men  only  to  build  their  judgment  upon  the  records  which 
the  Parliamentary  Debates  present. 

Of  Mr.  Erskine's  the  first,  beyond  all  doubt,  was  his 
speech  for  Stockdale,  foolishly  and  oppressively  prose- 
cuted by  the  House  of  Commons,  for  publishing  the  Reve- 
rend Mr.  Logan's  eloquent  tract  upon  Hastings's  im- 
peachment. There  arc  no  finer  things  in  modern,  and 
few  finer  in  ancient  eloquence  than  the  celebrated  passage 
of  the  Indian  Chief;  nor  has  beautiful  language  ever  been 
used  with  more  curious  felicity  to  raise  a  striking  and  an 
appropriate  image  before  the  mind,  than  in  the  simile  of 
the  winds  "  lashing  before  them  the  lazy  elements,  which 
without  the  tempest  would  stagnate  into  pestilence." 
The  speeches  on  Constructive  Treason  are  also  noble 
performances;  in  which  the  reader  never  can  forget  the 
sublimity  of  the  denunciation  against  those  who  took 
from  the  '•'  file  the  sentence  against  Sidney,  which  should 
have  been  left  on  record  to  all  ages,  that  it  might  arise 
and  blacken  in  the  sight,  like  the  handwriting  on  the 
wall  before  the  Eastern  tyrant,  to  deter  from  outrages 
upon  justice."  One  or  two  of  the  speeches  upon  Seduc- 
tion, especially  that  for  the  defendant  in  Howard  v. 
Bingham,  are  of  exquisite  beauty. 

It  remains  that  we  commemorate  the  deeds  which  he- 


MR.  ERSKINE.  47 

did,  and  which  cast  the  fame  of  his  oratory  into  the 
shade.  He  was  an  undaunted  man ;  he  was  an  undaunt- 
ed advocate.  To  no  Court  did  he  ever  truckle,  neither 
to  the  Court  of  the  King,  neither  to  the  Court  of  the 
King's  Judges.  Their  smiles  and  their  frowns  he  disre- 
garded alike  in  the  fearless  discharge  of  his  duty.  He 
upheld  the  liberty  of  the  press  against  the  one ;  he  de- 
fended the  rights  of  the  people  against  both  combined 
to  destroy  them.  If  there,  be  yet  amongst  us  the  power 
of  freely  discussing  the  acts  of  our  rulers;  if  there  be 
yet  the  privilege  of  meeting  for  the  promotion  of  need- 
ful reforms;  if  he  who  desires  wholesome  changes  in  our 
Constitution  be  still  recognised  as  a  patriot,  and  not 
doomed  to  die  the  death  of  a  traitor;  let  us  acknowledge 
with  gratitude,  that  to  this  great  man,  under  Heaven, 
we  owe  this  felicity  of  the  times.  In  1794,  his  daunt- 
less energy,  his  indomitable  courage,  kindling  his  elo- 
quence, inspiring  his  conduct,  giving  direction  and  lend- 
ing firmness  to  his  matchless  skill,  resisted  the  combi- 
nation of  statesmen,  and  princes,  and  lawyers — the 
league  of  cruelty  and  craft,  formed  to  destroy  our  liber- 
ties— and  triumphantly  scattered  to  the  winds  the  half- 
accomplished  scheme  of  an  unsparing  proscription.  Be- 
fore such  a  precious  service  as  this,  well  may  the  lustre 
of  statesmen  and  of  orators  grow  pale ;  and  yet  this 
was  the  achievement  of  one  only  not  the  first  orator  of 
his  age,  and  not  among  its  foremost  statesmen,  because 
he  was  beyond  all  comparison  the  most  accomplished 
advocate,  and  the  most  eloquent,  that  modern  times  have 
produced. 

The  disposition  and  manners  of  the  man  were  hardly 
less  attractive  than  his  genius  and  his  professional  skill 
were  admirable.  He  was,  like  almost  all  great  men, 
simple,  natural,  and  amiable;  full  of  humane  feelings 
and  kindly  affections.  Of  wit,  he  had  little  or  none  in 
conversation ;  and  he  was  too  gay  to  take  any  delight 
in  discussion;  but  his  humour  was  playful  to  buoyancy. 


48  MR.  ERSKINE. 

and  wild  even  to  extravagance;  and  he  indulged  his 
roaming  and  devious  and  abrupt  imagination  as  much 
in  society,  as  in  public  he  kept  it  under  rigorous  control. 
That  his  private  character  was  exempt  from  failings, can 
in  no  wise  be  affirmed.  The  egotism  which  was  charged 
upon  his  conversation,  and  in  which  he  only  seemed  to 
adopt  the  habit  of  forensic  leaders  of  his  time,  was 
wholly  unmixed  with  any  thing  offensive  to  others; 
though  it  might  excite  a  smile  at  his  own  expense.  Far 
from  seeking  to  raise  himself  by  their  depression,  his 
vanity  was  of  the  best-natured  and  least  selfish  kind;  it 
was  wholly  social  and  tolerant,  and,  as  it  were,  grega- 
rious; nay,  he  always  seemed  to  extol  the  deeds  of  others 
with  fully  more  enthusiasm  than  he  ever  displayed  in 
recounting  his  own.  But  there  were  darker  places  to 
"be  marked,  in  the  extreme  imprudence  with  which  some 
indulgences  were  sought,  and  unfortunate  connexions, 
even  late  in  life,  formed.  Lord  Kenyon,  who  admired 
and  loved  him  fervently,  and  used  always  to  appear  as 
vain  of  him  as  a  school-master  of  his  favourite  pupil, 
though  himself  rigorous  to  the  point  of  ascetism,  was 
wont  to  call  these  imperfections,  viewing  them  tolerantly, 
"  spots  in  the  sun ;"  and  it  must  with  sorrow  be  added, 
that  as  the  lustre  of  the  luminary  became  -more  dim, 
the  spots  did  not  contract  in  their  dimensions.  The 
usual  course  on  such  occasions  is  to  say,  Taceamus  de 
his, — but  History  neither  asserts  her  greatest  privilege, 
nor  discharges  her  higher  duties,  when,  dazzled  by  bril- 
liant genius,  or  astonished  by  splendid  triumphs,  or  even 
softened  by  amiable  qualities,  she  abstains  from  mark- 
ing those  defects  which  so  often  degrade  the  most  ster- 
ling worth,  and  which  the  talents  and  the  aflections  that 
they  accompany  may  sometimes  seduce  men  to  imitate. 
The  striking  and  imposing  appearance  of  this  great 
man'spersonhasbeen  mentioned.  His  Herculean  strength 
of  constitution  may  also  be  noted.  During  the  eight-and- 
twenty  years  that  he  practised  at  the  bar,  he  never  was 


MR.  ERSKINE.  49 

prevented  for  one  hour  from  attending  to  his  professional 
duties.  At  the  famous  State  Trials  in  1794,  he  lost  his 
voice  on  the  evening  before  he  was  to  address  the  Jury. 
It  returned  to  him  just  in  time,  and  this,  like  other  feli- 
cities of  his  career,  he  always  ascribed  to  a  special  provi- 
dence, with  the  habitually  religious  disposition  of  mind 
which  was  hereditary  in  the  godly  families  that  he  sprung 
from. 


VOL.  II. 


MR.   PERCEVAL. 


MR.  PERCEVAL, 


A  PERSON  of  great  eminence,  who,  like  Mr.  Erskine, 
arose  from  the  Bar,  where,  however,  he  never  distin- 
guished himself    much.       Mr.    Perceval    was   a    man 
of    very    quick    parts,    much    energy    of    character, 
dauntless    courage,  joined    to    patient    industry,    prac- 
tised   fluency    as    a    speaker,    great    skill    and    readi- 
ness   as    a    debater;     but  of    no    information    beyond 
what  a  classical  education    gives   the    common  run  of 
English  youths.     Of   views  upon  all    things  the  most 
narrow,  upon  religious  and  even  political  questions  the 
most  bigoted  and  intolerent,  his  range  of  mental  vision 
was  confined  in  proportion  to  his  ignorance  on  all  ge- 
neral subjects.     Within  that  spjiere  he  saw  with  extreme 
acuteness, — as  the  mole  is  supposed  to  be  more  sharp- 
sighted  than  the  eagle  for  half  a  quarter  of  an  inch  be- 
fore it;  but  as  beyond  the  limiits  of  his  little  horizon  he 
saw  no  better  than  the  mole,  so  like  her,  he  firmly  be- 
lieved, and  always  acted  on  the  belief,  that  beyond  what 
he  could  descry  nothing  whatever  existed;  and  he  mis- 
trusted, dreaded,  and  even  hated  all  who  had  an  ampler 
visual  range  than    himself.       But   here,  unhappily,  all 
likeness  ceases  between  the  puny  animal  and  the  power- 
ful statesman.     Beside  the  manifest  sincerity  of  his  con- 
victions, attested,  perhaps,  by  his  violence  and  rancour,  he 
possessed  many  qualities,  both  of  the  head  and  the  heart, 
which  strongly  recommended  him  to  the  confidence  of 
the  English  people.     He  never  scared  them  by  refine- 
ments, nor  alarmed  their  fears  by  any  sympathy  with 
improvements  out  of  the  old  and  beaten  track;  and  he 
shared  largely  in  all  their  favourite  national  prejudices. 
A  devoted  adherent  of  the  Crown,  and  a  pious  son  of 

5* 


54  MR.  PERCEVAL. 

the  Church,  he  was  dear  to  all  who  celebrate  their  re- 
vels by  libations  to  Church  and  King — most  of  whom 
regard  the  clergy  as  of  far  more  importance  than  the 
gospel— all  of  whom  are  well  enough  disposed  to  set  the 
monarch  above  the  law.  Add  to  this,  the  accidental 
qualifications  of  high  birth,  in  a  family  excessively  at- 
tached to  the  Court  and  the  Establishment,  and  still 
more  the  real  virtues  which  adorned  his  character;  a 
domestic  life  without  stain,  an  exemplary  discharge  of 
the  duties  that  devolve  on  the  father  of  a  numerous 
family,  a  punctual  performance  of  all  his  obligations, 
a  temper  which,  though  quick  and  even  irritable,  was 
generally  good,  a  disposition  charitable  and  kind  where 
the  rancour  of  party  or  sect  left  his  nature  free  scope. 
From  all  sordid  feeling  he  was  entirely  exempt — re- 
gardless of  pecuniary  interest — careless  of  mere  fortune 
— aiming  at  power  alone — and  only  suffering  his  ambi- 
tion to  be  restrained  by  its  intermixture  with  his  fiery 
zeal  for  the  success  of  his  cherished  principles,  religious 
and  civil.  The  whole  character  thus  formed,  whether 
intellectual  or  moral,  was  eminently  fitted  to  command 
the  respect  and  v.'in  the  favour  of  a  nation  whose  preju- 
dices are  numerous  and  deep-rooted,  and  whose  regard 
for  the  decencies  of  private  life  readily  accepts  a  strict 
observance  of  them  as  a  substitute  for  almost  any  poli- 
tical defect,  and  a  compensation  for  many  political 
crimes. 

The  eloquence  of  Mr,  Perceval,  any  more  than  his 
capacity,  was  not  of  the  highest  order;  although,  like 
his  capacity,  it  was  always  strenuously  exerted,  and 
sometimes  extremely  powerful.  He  was  a  person  of 
acute  and  quick  rather  than  of  great  faculties.  At  the 
bar  his  success  was  assured,  if  he  had  not  deviated  into 
politics;  giving  a  rival  to  that  mistress  which  is  jealous 
to  excess  of  the  least  infidelity  in  her  suitor.  The  nim- 
bleness  of  mind  and  industry  of  application  which  then 
distinguished  him,  he  brought  into  the  House  of  Com- 


MR.  PEKCEVAL.  55 

mons,  and  differing  from  other  lawyers,  he  was  always 
so  lively  as  to  be  heard  without  any  effort  in  a  place 
far  enough  from  being  enamoured  with  the  gown.  As 
Attorney-general  to  Mr.  Addington,  and  bearing  almost 
the  whole  burden  of  the  unequal  debate,  while  the 
forces  of  Fox,  Pitt,  and  Windham  combined  to  assail 
the  meagre  Treasury  Bench,  his  talents  sparkled  with 
peculiar  brightness.  His  dexterity  in  any  great  or  any 
personal  conflict;  his  excellent  language,  always  purely 
but  unaffectedly  English,  nor  ever  chargeable  with  in- 
correct taste;  his  attention  constantly  awake,  and  his 
spirit  ever  dauntless,  nay,  rather  rising  with  the  emer- 
gency— gained  him  the  greatest  reputation  as  a  ready 
and  a  powerful  debater.  When,  quitting  the  profession 
in  1807,  and  taking  the  lead  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
he  appeared  as  the  first  minister  in  all  but  name,  and 
afterwards,  on  the  Duke  of  Portland's  death,  had  the 
title  with  the  functions  of  Premier,  his  success  was  in- 
ferior; and  he  did  not  for  some  time  act  up  to  the  repu- 
tation which  he  had  gained  in  the  subordinate  and  half- 
professional  station. 

But  the  debates  upon  the  Regency  in  1811,  when  he 
fought,  almost  single-handed,  a  battle  for  royal  preroga- 
tive against  constitutional  principle;  with  the  prospect 
of  the  Regent  being  his  principal  opponent,  as  his  origi- 
nal connexion  with  Queen  Caroline  had  made  him  his 
implacable  enemy — these  contests  drew  fortl)  all  his  abi- 
lities, and  placed  him  at  once  in  the  highest  rank  of 
debaters.  His  party  too  were  popular  in  the  country, 
fond  of  Kings,  particularly  attached  to  George  III.,  dis- 
trustful and  averse  towards  his  successor,  above  all, 
deeply  revering  the  Established  Church,  whose  selected 
and  zealous  champion,  the  minister  had  long  been.  His 
manner  of  speaking,  familiar,  though  quick,  lively,  smart, 
yet  plain  upon  the  whole,  and  offending  no  one  by 
figures  or  by  tropes,  was  exceedingly  popular  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  where  the  dullest  have  no  disUke 


56  MR.  PERCEVAL. 

to  an  acute  and  clear  leader,  so  he  be  not  over  bril- 
liant and  witty.  He  was  a  man  of  business,  too,  in  all 
his  habits,  both  of  living  and  of  speaking;  opening  a 
dry  question  of  finance  or  regulation  with  as  great  spirit 
as  he  would  reply  to  a  personal  attack :  above  all,  his 
gallantry  in  debate  well  fitted  him  for  a  leader.  Who- 
ever might  quail  before  a  powerful  adversary,  or  faint 
under  the  pressure  of  a  bad  cause,  or  take  fright  in  a 
storm  of  popular  contention  and  even  indignation,  he 
was  none  of  these;  rather  the  louder  raged  the  tempest, 
so  much  the  shriller  rose  the  voice  that  called  his  forces 
together,  and  united  them  for  the  work  of  the  day, 
whether  to  face  the  enemy  or  to  weather  the  gale. 
Even  in  1809,  when  the  firmness  of  the  Royal  family 
and  the  Ministry  was  sorely  tried — but,  above  all,  of 
him,  a  pattern  of  morality,  a  strict  observer  of  ordi- 
nances, a  somewhat  intolerant  exacter  of  piety  in  others, 
of  him  who,  beyond  all  men,  must  have  found  it  hard  to 
face  the  moral  or  religious  indignation  of  the  whole 
country,  roused  by  the  veil,  being,  for  a  moment,  torn 
rudely  aside,  which  had  hitherto  covered  over  the  ten- 
der immoralities  of  Royal  life — even  then  the  person 
most  likely  to  be  struck  down  by  the  blast,  was  the  first 
to  face  it,  and  to  struggle  on  manfully  through  the  whole 
of  that  difhcult  crisis,  as  if  he  had  never  spoken  of  the 
Church,  and  the  moral  law,  and  wives,  and  children, 
and  domestic  ties,  and  the  profligacy  of  courts, — as  if 
the  people,  of  all  sects,  and  all  classes,  W'ere  looking  on, 
the  calm  spectators  of  an  ordinary  debate.  The  public 
voice  rendered  him,  on  this  occasion,  the  justice  ever 
done  to  men  who  show  in  performing  their  duty,  that 
they  have  the  courage  to  disregard  clamour,  and  to 
rely  upon  their  reputation  as  a  shield  against  miscon- 
struction. No  stain  rested  upon  his  character  from  his 
gallant  defence  of  the  Duke  of  York;  and  they  who 
were  sussessful  in  attacking  the  fair  fame  of  the  Prince, 
failed  in  all  their  attempts  to  blacken  his  official  de- 


MR.  PERCEVAL.  57 

fender.  In  the  next  Session,  he  met  Parliament  with  a 
Ministry  crippled  by  the  loss  of  both  Mr.  Canning's  elo- 
quence, and  Lord  Castlereagh's  manly  courage,  and  long 
experience  of  affairs, — met  it  too,  after  such  a  signal 
calamity  as  never  before  had  attended  any  failure  of  the 
Government  in  its  military  operations.  But  he  again 
presented  the  same  undaunted  front  to  all  perils;  and 
having  happily  obtained  the  co-operation  of  Lord  Welles- 
ley,  and  continuing  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  his  illustrious 
brother's  victories,  he  again  triumphed  over  all  opposi- 
tion, until  the  Prince  Regent's  desertion  of  his  friends 
seemed  to  give  the  Tory  party  a  lease  of  their  places 
during  his  life. 

This  eminent  person's  career  vi^as  cut  short  while  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  difficult  struggle  of  all  in  which 
he  was  fated  to  engage.     The  influence  of  his  friend 
Mr.  Stephen  over  his  mind  was  unbounded.     Agreeing 
on  all  political  questions,  and  alike  in  the  strength  of 
their  religious  feelings,  although  the  one  leant  towards 
the    High    Church    party,  and    the    other  was  a  Low 
Churchman,  upon  all  questions  connected  with  neutral 
rights,  he  in  an  especial  manner  deferred  to  the  opinion 
of  him  whose  professional  life  had  been  chiefly  passed 
in  the  discussion  of  them.     Accordingly,  the  measure  of 
the   Orders  in    Council,  devised  by  him,  was  readily 
adopted  by  the  minister,  who,  never  giving  either  his 
support  or  his  opposition  b}''  halves,  always  flung  him- 
self into  any  cause  which  he  espoused  with  as  much 
zeal  as  if  it  were  his  own.     Add  to  this,  his  hearty  and 
deep-rooted  hatred  of  Napoleon,  whom  he  regarded  with 
the  true  feelings  of  the  people,  as  he  accurately  repre- 
sented their  national  prejudices — his  scorn  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, whom  he  disliked  with  the  animosity  peculiar  to 
all  the  courtiers  of  George  III. — his  truly  English  feeling 
in  favour  of  obtaining  through  the  war  a  monopoly  of 
all  trade,  and  bringing  into  London  and  Bristol  the  com- 
merce of  the  world — all  these  desires   were  gratified? 


58  MR.  PERCEVAL. 

and  these  feelings,  indulged  by  a  system  which,  under 
the  mask  of  retaliation  upon  France,  professed  to  extin- 
guish, or  to  absorb  into  our  own  commerce,  the  trade  of 
all  the  neutrals  whom  France  had  oppressed  in  order  to 
injure  us;  and  Mr.  Perceval  thus  became  as  strenuous 
a  champion  of  this  unjust  and  preposterous  plan  as  its 
author  himself.  In  1808  he  had  prevailed  with  par- 
liament to  give  it  a  full  trial;  and  in  four  years,  instead 
of  collecting  all  the  trade  of  the  world  into  England,  it 
had  effectually  ruined  whatever  Napoleon's  measures 
had  left  of  our  own. 

Accordingly,  a  motion  was  carried  at  the  end  of 
April,  1812,  for  examining  the  question  in  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  House,  and  in  taking  the  evidence 
which  was  adduced  to  show  the  ruinous  effects  of  the 
system,  he,  with  Mr.  Stephen,  bore  night  after  night  the 
principal  part.  As  they  both  hoped  that  the  clamour 
out  of  doors  would  subside  if  time  were  given,  the  struggle 
always  was  to  put  off  the  inquiry,  and  thus  to  protract  the 
decision;  and  Messrs.  Brougham  and  Baring,  who  con- 
ducted it,  with  some  difficulty  prevailed  so  far  as  to  begin 
the  examination  of  the  witnesses  exactly  at  half  past  four 
o'clock.  On  the  11th  of  May,  Mr.  Perceval  had  been 
later  than  the  appointed  time,  and  after  complaining  of 
this  delay,  Mr.  Brougham,  at  a  quarter  before  five,  had 
called  his  first  witness,  and  was  examining  him,  when  a 
messenger  deputed  tobring  the  minister,  met  him  walking 
towards  the  House  with  Mr.  Stephen  arm-in-arm.  He 
instantly,  with  his  accustomed  activity,  darted  forward 
to  obey  the  summons,  but  for  which  Mr.  Stephen,  who 
happened  to  beonhis  leftside,wouldhavebeenthe  victim 
of  the  assassin's  blow,  which  prostrated  Mr.  Perceval  as 
he  entered  the  lobby.  The  wretched  man,  by  name  Bel- 
lingham,  had  no  kind  of  quarrel  with  him ;  but  com- 
plained of  a  suit  at  Petersburgh  having  been  neglected 
by  our  ambassador  there,  Lord  Grenville,  whom  he  in- 
tended to  have  destroyed,  had  not  Mr,  Perceval  fallen 


MR.  PERCEVAL.  59 

first  in  his  way.  He  never  attempted  to  escape;  but  was 
taken,  committed,  tried,  condemned,  executed,  dissect- 
ed, all  within  one  week  from  the  time  that  he  tired  the 
shot.  So  great  an  outrage  upon  justice  never  was  wit- 
nessed in  modern  times;  for  the  apphcation  to  delay 
the  trial,  until  evidence  of  his  insanity  could  be  brought 
from  Liverpool,  was  refused,  and  the  trial  proceeded, 
while  both  the  court,  the  witnesses,  the  jury,  and  the 
people,  were  under  the  influence  of  the  feelings  natu- 
rally excited  by  the  deplorable  slaughter  of  one  of  the 
most  eminent  and  virtuous  men  in  any  rank  of  the  com- 
munity. 

It  has  been  said  already  that  Mr.  Perceval  was  both 
imperfectly  educated  and  very  narrow-minded.  He 
was  the  slave  of  violent  prejudices,  and  had  never  made 
any  effort  to  shake  them  off,  or  to  mitigate  them  by  in- 
structing himself  in  any  of  the  branches  of  learning 
out  of  his  own  profession,  save  only  that  he  had  the  or- 
dinary portion  of  classical  learning  which  all  English 
gentlemen  acquire  in  their  early  youth.  How  amiable 
soever  in  private  life,  he  was  intolerant  of  others  who 
differed  with  him  in  the  proportion  of  his  ignorance, 
and  committed  the  error  of  all  such  conscientious  but 
bigoted  men,  the  forgetting  that  those  of  opposite  sen- 
timents have  exactly  the  same  excuse  for  unyielding 
obstinacy  that  they  have  for  rooted  dislike  towards  ad- 
verse doctrines.  They  feel  all  the  heat  of  intolerance, 
but  make  no  kind  of  allowance  for  others  feeling  some- 
what of  the  fire  which  burns  so  fiercely  within  them- 
selves. 


LORD  GRENVILLE 


VOL.  II. 6 


LORD  GRENVILLE. 


The  two  eminent  personages  of  whom  we  have  been 
speaking,  were  Mr.  Pitt's  contemporaries  and  political 
adherents,  though  of  a  less  advanced  age.  But  Lord 
Grenville  was  of  his  own  standing,  followed  his  fortune 
during  the  eventful  period  of  the  coalesced  opposition 
and  the  first  French  war,  left  office  with  him  in  1801, 
nor  quitted  him  until  he  consented  to  resume  it  in  1804, 
preferring  place  to  character,  and  leaving  the  Whigs, 
by  whose  help  he  had  overthrown  the  Addington  ad- 
ministration. From  that  moment  Lord  Grenville  joined 
the  Whig  party,  with  whom  to  the  end  of  his  public 
life  he  continued  to  act. 

A  greater  accession  to  the  popular  cause  and  the 
Whig  party  it  was  impossible  to  imagine,  unless  Mr. 
Pitt  himself  had  persevered  in  his  desire  of  rejoining  the 
standard  under  which  his  first  and  noblest  battles  were 
fought.  All  the  qualities  in  which  their  long  opposi- 
tion and  personal  habits  made  them  deficient,  Lord 
Grenville  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree;  long  habits 
of  business  had  matured  his  experience  and  disciplined 
his  naturally  vigorous  understanding;  a  life  studiously 
regular  had  surrounded  him  with  the  respect  of  his 
countrymen,  and  of  those  wdiom  the  dazzling  talents 
of  others  could  not  blind  to  their  loose  propensities 
or  idle  talents;  a  firm  attachment  to  the  Church  as 
bv  law  established,  attracted  towards  him  the  confi- 
dence  of  those  who  subscribe  to  its  doctrines  and  ap- 
prove its  discipline;  while  his  tried  prudence  and  dis- 
cretion, were  a  balance  much  wanted  against  the  op- 
posite defects  of  the  Whig  party,  and  especially  of 
their  most  celebrated  leader. 


64  LORD  GRENVILLE. 

After  Mr.  Grattan,  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  out 
any  person  to  whom  the  great  and  fundamental  question 
of  Irish  Policy,  and  the  cause  of  religious  liberty  in 
general,  was  so  much  indebted  as  Lord  Grenville;* 
while  in  the  sacrifices  which  he  made  to  it,  he  certainly 
much  exceeded  Mr.  Grattan  himself.  He  was  enabled 
to  render  this  valuable  service  to  his  country,  not  more 
by  his  natural  abilities,  which  were  of  a  very  high  order 
— sound  judgment,  extraordinary  memory,  an  almost 
preternatural  power  of  application — and  by  the  rich, 
stores  of  knowledge  which  those  eminent  quaUties  had 
put  him  in  possession  of,  than  by  the  accidental  circum- 
stances in  his  previous  history  and  present  position — 
his  long  experience  in  office,  which  had  tried  and  ma- 
tured his  talents  in  times  of  unexampled  difficulty — his 
connexion  with  Mr.  Pitt,  both  in  the  kindred  of  blood 
and  of  place,  so  well  fitted  to  conciliate  the  Tory  party, 
or  at  all  events  to  disarm  their  hostility,  and  lull  their 
suspicions — above  all,  the  well-known  and  steady  at- 
tachment of  himself  and  his  family  to  the  principles  and 
the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England. 

When,  therefore,  he  quitted  power  with  Mr.  Pitt  in 
1801,  rather  than  abandon  the  Catholic  Emancipation, 
the  carrying  of  which  had  only  a  year  before  been  held 
out  as  one  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  Union;  and 
when,  in  1804,  he  peremptorily  refused  to  join  Mr.  Pitt 

*  The  plan  of  this  work  of  course  precludes  all  reference,  at  least 
all  detailed  reference,  to  the  conduct  and  the  merits  of  living  states- 
men. But  for  this  an  ample  field  would  be  opened,  in  which  to  ex- 
patiate upen  the  transcendent  services  of  Lord  Grey,  and  the  ample 
sacrifices  which  he  made,  during  the  greater  part  of  his  political  life, 
to  the  rights  and  the  interests  of  the  Irish  people.  Lord  Wellesley's 
services  in  the  same  cause,  it  is  also,  for  the  same  reason,  impossible 
to  enter  upon  further  than  to  remind  the  reader  that,  after  having 
almost  begun  life  as  the  advocate  of  the  Catholic  claims,  he,  and  after, 
him  Lord  Anglesey,  first  set  the  example  to  succeeding  Viceroys  of 
ruling  Ireland  with  the  most  perfect  justice  to  all  parties,  and  holding 
the  balance  of  favour  even,  with  a  steady  hand,  between  Catholic  anoj 
Protestant,  Churchman  and  Dissenter, 


LORD  G RENVILLE,  65 

In  resuming  office,  unless  a  ministry  should  be  formed 
upon  a  basis  wide  enough  to   comprehend  the  Whig 
party;  the  cause  of  liberal,  tolerant  principles,  but,  above 
all,  the  Irish  question,  gained  an  able  supporter,  whose 
alliance,  whether   his    intrinsic    or   accidental  qualities 
were  considered,  might  justly  be  esteemed  beyond  all 
price.     The  friends  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  duly 
valued  this  most  important  accession;    and  the  distin- 
guished statesman  whom  they  now  accounted  as  one  of 
their  most  powerful  champions,  and  trusted  as  one  of 
their  most  worthy  leaders,  amply  repaid  the  confidence 
reposed  in  him,  by  the  steady  and  disinterested  devotion 
which,  with  his  characteristic  integrityand  firmness,  he 
gave  to  the  cause.     Taking  oflice  with  Mr.  Fox,  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  government,  upon  the  death  of 
that  great  man  he  peremptorily,  and  with  bare  courtesy, 
rejected  all  the  overtures  of  the  King  to  separate  from 
the  Whigs,  and  rejoin    his   ancient    allies  of  the  Pitt 
school.    Soon  afterwards,  in  firm  union  with  the  remains 
of  the  Fox  party,  he  carried  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave 
Trade,  and  retired  from  power,  rather  than  bind  himself 
not  to  press  the  Catholic  Emancipation  upon  the  narrow- 
minded  though  conscientious  Prince  whom  he  served. 
Continuing  in  close  alliance  with  the  Whigs,  lie  shared 
with  them  the  frowns  of  the  Court  and  the  habitual 
exclusion  from  office  which  has,  for  the  most  part,  been 
their  portion  in  public  life.     Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that 
the  perseverance  with  which  he  abided  by  his  declared 
opinions  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  Question  alone  pre- 
vented him  from  presiding  over  the  councils  of  his  coun- 
try, during,  at  the  least,  twenty  years  of  his  life.     They 
who  have  come  to  the  aid  of  the  liberal  cause  only  when 
its  success  made  an  adhesion  to  it  the  road  to  Court  fa- 
vour, with  all  its  accompaniments  of  profit  and  of  power, 
have  a  very  difierent  account  of  mutual  obligation  to 
settle  with  their  country,  from  that  which  Lord  Gren- 
ville  could  at  any  time  since  his  retirement  have  pre- 

6* 


66  LORD  GRENVILLE. 

sented,  but  disdained  ever  even  to  hint  at.  But  they 
who,  after  his  powerful  advocacy,  his  inflexible  inte- 
grity, his  heavy  sacrifices,  had  all  but  carried  the  Irish 
question,  have  come  forward  to  finish  the  good  work, 
and  have  repeated  every  kind  of  gratification  from  doing 
their  duty,  instead  of  making  a  sacrifice  of  their  interests 
like  him,  would  do  well,  while  they  usurp  all  the  glory 
of  these  successes,  to  recollect  the  men  whose  labours, 
requited  with  proscription,  led  the  way  to  comparatively 
insignificant  exertions,  still  more  beneficial  to  the  indivi- 
duals that  made  them,  than  advantageous  to  the  cause 
they  served. 

The  endowments  of  this  eminent  statesman's  mind 
were  all  of  a  useful  and  commanding  sort — sound  sense, 
steady  memory,  vast  industry.  His  acquirements  were 
in  the  same  proportion  valuable  and  lasting — a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  business  in  its  principles  and  in  its 
details;  a  complete  mastery  of  the  science  of  politics, 
as  well  theoretical  as  practical;  of  late  years  a  perfect 
familiarity  with  political  economy,  and  a  just  appre- 
ciation of  its  importance;  an  early  and  most  extensive 
knowledge  of  classical  literature,  which  he  improved 
instead  of  abandoning,  down  to  the  close  of  his  life; 
a  taste  formed  upon  those  chaste  models,  and  of  which 
his  lighter  compositions,  his  Greek  and  Latin  verses, 
bore  testimony  to  the  very  last.  His  eloquence  was  of 
a  plain,  masculine,  authoritative  cast,  which  neglected 
if  it  did  not  despise  ornament,  and  partook  in  the  least 
possible  degi^ee  of  fancy,  while  its  declamation  was  often 
equally  powerful  with  its  reasoning  and  its  statement. 

The  faults  of  his  character  were  akin  to  some  of 
the  excellencies  which  so  greatly  distinguished  it;  his 
firmness  was  apt  to  degenerate  into  obstinacy;  his 
confidence  in  the  principles  he  held  was  not  unmixed 
with  contempt  for  those  who  difiered  from  him.  His 
unbending  honesty,  and  straightforward  course  of  deal- 
ing with  all  men  and  all  subjects,  not  unfrequently  led 
liim  to  neglect  those  courtesies  which  facilitate  political 


LORD  GllENVILLE.  67 

and  personal  intercourse,  and  that  spirit  of  conciliation 
which,  especially,  in  a  mixed  government  chiefly  con- 
ducted by  party,  sometimes  enables  men  to  win  a  way 
which  they  cannot  force  towards  the  attainment  of  im- 
portant objects.  Perhaps  his  most  unfortunate  preju- 
dices were  those  which  he  had  early  imbibed  upon  cer- 
tain matters  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  and  which  ihe  ac- 
cidental circumstance  of  his  connexion  with  Oxford 
as  Chancellor  strengthened  to  the  exclusion  of  the  re- 
forming spirit  carried  by  him  into  all  institutions  of  a 
merely  secular  kind.  Upon  the  Parliamentary  consti- 
tution of  the  country  he  had  no  such  alarms  or  scru- 
ples; and,  although  it  is  certain  that  he  would  have  re- 
formed it  much  more  gradually,  than  the  long  delay  of 
the  great  measure,  rendered  ultimately  necessary,  it  is 
equally  clear,  that  he  would  have  stopped  short  of  no 
improvement,  which  could  be  reasonably  required,  mere- 
ly because  it  was  a  change.  For  he  was  in  this  great- 
est quality  of  a  statesman,  pre-eminently  distinguished, 
that,  as  he  neither  would  yield  up  his  judgment  to  the 
clamours  of  the  people,  nor  suffer  himself  to  be  seduced 
by  the  influence  of  the  Court,  so  would  he  never  sub- 
mit his  reason  to  the  empire  of  prejudice,  or  own  the 
supremacy  of  authority  and  tradition.  "  Reliqui  sunt, 
qui  mortui  sunt — L.  Torquatus,  quem  to  non  tam  cito 
rhetorem  dixisses,  etsi  non  deerat  oratio,  quam,  ut 
Grseci  dicunt  TroXiTixov.  Erant  in  eo  plurimae  litterae, 
nee  693  vulgares,  sed  interiores  qiia^dam  et  reconditas, 
divina  memoria,  summa  verborum  et  gravitas  et  ele- 
gantia:  atque  haec  omnia  vitce  decorabat  dignitas  et 
integritas.  Plena  litteratte  senuctulis  oratio.  Quanta 
severitas  in  vultu  !  Quantum  pondus  in  verbis  1  Q,uam 
nihil  non  consideratum  exibat  ex  ore!  Sileamus  de 
isto,  ne  augeamus  dolorem.  Nam  et  prceteritorum  re- 
cordatio  est  acerba,  et  acerbior  expectatio   reliq.uo- 


rum."* 


*  Cicero,,  Brutus,  266. 


MR.  GRATTAN. 


MR.  GRATTAN. 


The  name  which  we  mentioned  as  superior  to  even 
Lord  Grenville  in  services  to  the  Irish  question,  recalls 
to  mind  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  age — Henry 
Grattan. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  point  out  any  statesman  or 
patriot,  in  any  age  of  the  world,  whose  fame  stands 
higher  for  his  public  services;  nor  is  it  possible  to  name 
any  one,  the  purity  of  whose  reputation  has  been  stained 
by  so  few  faults,  and  the  lustre  of  whose  renown  is 
dimmed  by  so  few  imperfections.  From  the  earliest 
years  at  which  he  could  appeal'  upon  the  political  stage, 
he  devoted  himself  to  state  affairs.  While  yet  in  the 
prime  of  youth,  he  had  achieved  a  victory  which  stands 
at  the  head  of  all  the  triumphs  ever  won  by  a  patriot  for 
his  country  in  modern  times;  he  had  effected  an  impor- 
tant revolution  in  the  Government,  without  violence  of 
any  kind,  and  had  broken  chains  of  the  most  degrading 
kind,  by  which  the  injustice  and  usurpation  of  three  cen- 
turies had  bound  her  down.  Her  immediate  gratitude 
placed  him  in  a  situation  of  independence,  which  enabled 
him  to  consecrate  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  her  ser- 
vice, without  the  interruption  arising  from  professional 
pursuits;  and  he  continued  to  persevere  in  the  same 
course  of  patriotism  marked  by  a  rare  union  of  the  mode- 
ration which  springs  from  combined  wisdom  and  virtue, 
with  the  firmness  and  the  zeal  which  are  pecuHar  to  ge- 
nius. No  factious  partisan,  making  devotion  to  the  public 
cause  a  convenient  and  a  safe  mask  for  the  attainment 
of  his  selfish  interests,  whether  of  sordid  avarice  or  of 
crawling  ambition,  ever  found  in  Grattan  either  an  in- 
strument or  an  accomplice.    No  true   friend   of  the 


72  MR.  GRATTAN. 

people,  inspired  with  a  generous  desire  of  extirpating 
abuses,  and  of  extending  the  reign  of  freedom,  ever  com- 
plained of  Grattan's  slowness  to  join  the  untarnished 
banner  of  patriotism.  No  advocate  of  human  improve- 
ment, filled  with  the  sacred  zeal  of  enlarging  the  enjoy- 
ments or  elevating  the  condition  of  mankind,  was  ever 
damped  in  his  aspirations  by  Grattan's  coldness,  or  had 
reason  to  wish  him  less  the  advocate  of  Ireland  and 
more  the  friend  of  his  species. 

The  principal  battle  which  he  fought  for  his  native 
country  required  him  to  embrace  every  great  and  diffi- 
cult question  of  domestic  policy ;  for  the  misrule  and 
oppression  exercised  by  England  over  the  Irish  people 
extended  to  all  their  commercial  dealings,  as  well  as 
to  their  political  rights,  and  sought  to  fetter  their  trade 
by  a  complicated  system  of  vexatious  regulations,  as 
well  as  to  awe  their  legislators  by  an  assumption  of 
sovereignty,  and  to  impose  the  fetters  of  a  foreign  juris- 
diction upon  the  administration  of  justice  itself.  In  no 
part  of  this  vast  and  various  fieH  were  Mr.  Grattan's 
powers  found  to  fail  or  his  acquirements  to  prove  defi- 
cient ;  and  he  handled  the  details  of  fiscal  and  of  mercan- 
tile policy  with  as  much  accuracy  and  as  great  address 
as  he  brought  to  the  discussion  of  the  broader  and  easier, 
though  more  momentous  subject — the  great  question  of 
National  Independence.  He  was  left,  on  the  achieve- 
ment of  his  great  triumph,  in  possession  of  as  brilliant 
a  reputation  as  a  man  could  desire;  and  it  was  unsullied 
by  any  one  act  either  of  factious  violence,  or  of  personal 
meanness,  or  the  inconsistency  into  which  overmuch 
vehemence  in  the  pursuit  of  praiseworthy  objects  is  wont 
to  betray  even  the  most  virtuous  men.  The  popular 
favour  which  he  enjoyed  to  so  unexampled  a  degree,  and 
in  such  unmeasured  profusion,  was  in  a  short  time  de- 
stined to  suffer  an  interruption,  not  unusual  in  the  history 
of  popular  leaders;  and  for  refusing  to  join  in  the  de- 
signs, of  a  more  than  doubtful  origin,  of  men  inferior  in 


MR.  GRATTAN.  73 

reputation  of  every  kind,  and  of  a  more  than  doubtful 
honesty — men  who  proscribed  as  unworthy  of  the  peo- 
ple's esteem  all  that  acknowledge  any  restraints  of  mode- 
ration— he  lived  to  see  himself  denounced  by  the  fac- 
tious, reviled  by  the  unprincipled,  and  abandoned  by 
their  dupes,  the  bulk  of  the  very  nation  whose  idol  he 
had  so  lately  been. 

The  war  with  France,  and  the  fear  of  revolutionary 
movements  at  home,  rendered  him  for  some  years  an 
alarmist;  and  he  joined  with  those  who  supported  the 
hostilities  into  which  Mr.  Pitt  and  the  Portland  seceders 
from  the  Whig  party  unhappily  plunged  the  empire. 
But  he  carried  his  support  of  arbitrary  measures  at  home 
a  very  short  way  compared  with  the  new  allies  of  the 
Government  in  England;   and  the  proceedings  of  the 
Irish  Ministry,  during  and  after  the  rebellion,  found  in 
him  an  adversary  as  uncompromising  as  in  the  days  of 
his  most  strenuous  patriotism,  and  most  dazzling  popu- 
larity.    Despairing  of  success  by  any  efforts  of  the  party 
in  Parliament,  he  joined  in  the  measure  of  secession 
adopted  by  the  English  Whigs,  but  after  a  manner  far 
more  reconcilable  to  a  sense  of  public  duty,  as  well  as 
far  more  effective  in  itself,  than  the  absurd  and  incon- 
sistent course  which  they  pursued,  of  retaining  the  office 
of  representatives,  wliile  they  refused  to  perform  any  of 
its  duties,  except  the  enjoyment  of  its  personal  privi- 
leges,     Mr.  Grattan  and  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  oppo- 
sition vacated  their  seats  at  once,  and  left  their  consti- 
tuents to  choose  other  deJegates.     When  the  Union  waa 
propounded,   they  again   returned   to   their  posts,  and 
offered    a    resistance    to    that    measure,   which   at    first 
proved  successful,  and  deferred  for  a  year  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  measure  planned  in  true  wisdom,  though 
executed   by  most    corrupt    and    corrupting    means — a 
measure  as  necessary  for  the  well-being  of  Ireland  as 
for  the  security  of  the  empire  at  large.     He  entered  the 
Imperial  Parliament  in  1805,  and  continued,  with  the 

VOL.  II.  7 


74  MR.  GRATTAN. 

exception  of  the  question  upon  the  renewal  of  the  war 
in  1816,  a  constant  and  most  powerful  coadjutor  of  the 
Whig  party,  refusing  office  when  they  came  into  power 
upon  Mr.  Pitt's  death,  but  lending  them  a  strenuous  sup- 
port upon  all  great  questions,  whether  of  English  policy 
or  of  Irish, and  showing  himself  most  conspicuously  above 
the  mean  and  narrow  spirit  that  would  confine  a  states- 
man's exertions  to  the  questions  which  interest  one  por- 
tion of  the  empire,  or  with  which  his  own  fame  in  for- 
mer times  may  have  been  more  peculiarly  entwined. 

Among  the  orators,  as  among  the  statesmen  of  his 
age,  Mr.  Grattan  occupies  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank; 
and  it  was  the  age  of  the  Pitts,  the  Foxes,  and  the 
Sheridans.  His  eloquence  was  of  a  very  high  order,  all 
but  of  the  very  highest,  and  it  was  eminently  original. 
In  the  constant  stream  of  a  diction  replete  with  epigram 
and  point — a  stream  on  which  floated  gracefully,  be- 
cause naturally,  flowers  of  various  hues, — was  poured 
forth  the  closest  reasoning,  the  most  luminous  statement, 
the  most  persuasive  display  of  all  the  motives  that  could 
influence,  and  of  all  the  details  that  could  enlighten,  his 
audience.  Often  a  different  strain  was  heard,  and  it 
was  declamatory  and  vehement — or  pity  was  to  be 
moved,  and  its  pathos  was  touching  as  it  was  simple — 
or,  above  all,  an  adversary  sunk  in  baseness,  or  covered 
with  crimes,  was  to  be  punished  or  to  be  destroyed,  and 
a  storm  of  the  most  terrible  invective  raged,  with  all  the 
blights  of  sarcasm,  and  the  thunders  of  abuse.  The 
critic,  led  away  for  the  moment,  and  unable  to  do 
more  than  feel  with  the  audience,  could  in  those  cases, 
even  when  he  came  to  reflect  and  to  judge,  find  often 
nothing  to  reprehend;  seldom  in  any  case  more  than  the 
excess  of  epigram,  which  had  yet  become  so  natural  to 
the  orator,  that  his  argument  and  his  narrative,  and  even 
his  sagacious  unfolding  of  principles,  seemed  sponta- 
neously to  clothe  themselves  in  the  most  pointed  terse- 
ness, and  most  apt  and  felicitous  antitheses.     From  the 


MR.  GKATTAN.  75 

faults  of  his  country's  eloquence  he  was,  generally  speak- 
ing, free.  Occasionally  an  over-fondness  for  vehement 
expression,  an  exaggeration  of  passion,  or  an  offensive 
appeal  to  Heaven,  might  be  noted;  very  rarely  a  loaded 
use  of  figures,  and,  more  rarely  still,  of  figures  broken 
and  mixed.  But  the  perpetual  striving  after  far-fetched 
quaintness;  the  disdaining  to  say  any  one  thing  in  an 
easy  and  natural  style;  the  contempt  of  that  rule,  as 
true  in  rhetoric  as  in  conduct,  that  it  is  wise  to  do 
common  things  in  the  common  way;  the  affectation  of 
excessive  feelings  upon  all  things,  without  regard  to  their 
relative  importance;  the  making  any  occasion,  even  the 
most  fitted  to  rouse  genuine  and  natural  feeling,  a  mere 
opportunity  of  theatrical  display — all  these  failings,  by 
which  so  many  oratorical  reputations  have  been  blighted 
among  a  people  famous  for  their  almost  universal  orato- 
rical genius,  were  looked  for  in  vain  when  Mr.  Grattan 
rose,  whether  in  the  senate  of  his  native  country,  or  in 
that  to  which  he  was  transferred  by  the  Union.  And  if 
he  had  some  peculiarity  of  outward  appearance,  as  a  low 
and  awkward  person,  in  which  he  resembled  the  first 
of  orators,  and  even  of  manner,  in  which  he  had  not  like 
him  made  the  defects  of  nature  yield  to  severe  culture; 
so  had  he  one  excellence  of  the  very  highest  order,  in 
which  he  may  be  truly  said  to  have  left  all  the  orators 
of  modern  times  behind — the  severe  abstinence  which 
rests  satisfied  with  striking  the  decisive  blow  in  a  word 
or  two,  not  weakening  its  effect  by  repetition  and  ex- 
pansion,— and  another  excellence,  higher  still,  in  which 
no  orator  of  any  age  is  his  equal,  the  easy  and  copious 
flow  of  most  profound,  sagacious,  and  original  principles, 
enunciated  in  terse  and  striking,  but  appropriate  lan- 
guage. To  give  a  sample  of  this  latter  peculiarity  would 
be  less  easy,  and  would  occupy  more  space;  but  of  the 
former  it  may  be  truly  said  that  Dante  himself  never 
conjured  up  a  striking,  a  pathetic,  and  an  appropriate 
image  in  fewer  words  than  Mr.  Grattan  employed  to 


76  MR.  GRATTAN. 

describe  his  relation  towards  Irish  independence,  when, 
alluding  to  its  rise  in  1782,  and  its  fall  twenty  years 
later  he  said,  "  I  sat  by  its  cradle — I  followed  its 
hearse." 

In  private  life  he  was  without  a  stain,  whether  of 
temper  or  of  principle:  singularly  amiable,  as  well  as 
of  unblemished  purity  in  all  the  relations  of  family  and 
of  society;  of  manners  as  full  of  generosity  as  they  were 
free  from  affectation;  of  conversation  as  much  seasoned 
with  spirit  and  impregnated  with  knowledge  as  it  was 
void  of  all  asperity  and  gall.  Who  ever  he^rd  him 
in  private  society,  and  marked  the  calm  tone  of  his 
judicious  counsel,  the  profound  wisdom  of  his  saga- 
cious observations,  the  unceasing  felicity  of  his  expres- 
sions, the  constant  variety  and  brilliancy  of  his  illustra- 
tions, could  well  suppose  that  he  had  conversed  with 
the  orator  whose  wit  and  whose  wisdom  enlightened 
and  guided  the  senate  of  his  country;  but  in  the  play- 
ful hilarity  of  the  companion,  his  unbroken  serenity,  his 
unruffled  good  nature,  it  would  indeed  have  been  a  diffi- 
cult thing;  to  recognise  the  g-iant  of  debate,  whose  awful 
energies  had  been  hurled,  nor  yet  exhausted,  upon  the 
Corrys,  the  Duignans,  and  the  Floods.* 

The  signal  failure  of  the  latter,  when  transplanted  to 
the  English  parliament,  suggests  a  reference  to  the  same 
passage  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Grattan.  Men  were  variously 
inclined  to  conjecture  upon  his  probable  success;  and 
the    singularity  of   his    external    appearance,  and    his 

*  It  is  always  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  draw  the  character  of  a 
person  who  belongs  to  another,  and,  in  some  particulars,  a  very  different 
country.  This  has  been  felt  in  making  the  attempt  to  give  a  sketch  of 
Mr.  Grattan;  and  whoever  has  read  the  most  lively  and  picturesque  piece 
of  biography  that  was  ever  given  to  the  world,  Mr.  C.  Phillips's  Recol- 
lections of  Curran,  will  join  in  the  regret  here  expressed,  that  the  pre- 
sent  work  did  not  fall  into  hands  so  able  to  perform  it  in  a  masterly 
manner.  The  constant  occupation  consequent  upon  great  professional 
eminence,  has  unfortunately  withdrawn  him  from  the  walks  of  litera- 
ture, in  which  he  was  so  remarkably  fitted  to  shine. 


MR.  GRATTAN.  77 

manner  of  speaking,  as  well  as  his  action,  so  unusual  in 
the  English  Parhament,  made  the  event  doubtful,  for 
some  time,  during  his  speech  of  1805,  Nor  were  there 
wanting  those  surrounding  Mr.  Pitt,  who  foretold  **  that 
it  would  not  do."  That  great  debater,  and  experienced 
judge,is  said  tohave  for  some  moments  partaken  of  these 
doubts,  when  the  happy  execution  of  some  passage,  not 
perhaps  marked  by  the  audience  at  large,  at  once  dis- 
pelled them.;  and  he  pronounced  to  his  neighbours  an 
authoritative  and  decisive  sentence,  which  the  unani- 
mous voice  of  the  House  and  of  the  country  forthwith 
affirmed. 

This  illustrious  patriot  died  a  few  days  after  his  ar- 
rival in  London,  at  the  beginning  of  June,  1820,  having 
come  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  and  in  a  dying  state, 
to  attend  his    Parliamentary  duties.     A   request' was 
made  to  his  family,  that  his  remains  might  be  buried 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  instead  of  being  conveyed  for  in- 
terment to  Ireland;  and  this  having  been  complied  with, 
the  obsequies  were  attended  by  all  the  more  distin- 
guished members  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament.     The 
following  Letter  containing  the  request  was  signed  by 
the  leaders  of  the  liberal   party.     The  beauty  of  its 
chaste  composition,  was  much,  and  justly,  admired  at 
the  time  ;  but  little  wonder  was  excited  by  it,  when  the 
author  came  to  be  known.    It  proceeded  from  the  pen  of 
one  of  the  greatest  poets  whom  this  country  has  pro- 
duced, as  well  as  one  of  its  finest  prose  writers ;  who, 
to  this  unstable  fame,  adds  the  more  imperishable  re- 
nown of  being  also  one  of  the  most  honourable  men, 
and  most  uncompromising  friends  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  who  have  appeared  in  any  age.     The  rare  fe- 
licity of  our  time,  in  possessing  two  individuals  to  whom 
this  description  might  be  applied, — Rogers  and  Camp- 
bell,— alone,  makes  it  necessary  to  add,  that  the  former 
is  here  meant : 

7* 


T8  MR.  GRATTAN. 

"to  the  sons  of  MR.  GRATTAN. 

"  Filled  with  veneration  for  the  character  of  your 
father,  we  venture  to  express  a  wish,  common  to  us 
with  many  of  those  who  most  admired  and  loved  him, 
that  what  remains  of  him  should  be  allowed  to  continue 
among  us. 

"It  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  deprive  the 
empire  of  his  services,  while  he  was  here  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  that  sacred  edifice  where  great  men  from 
all  parts  of  the  British  dominions  have  been  for  ages 
interred.  We  are  desirous  of  an  opportunity  of  joining 
in  the  due  honour  to  tried  virtue  and  genius.  Mr. 
Grattan  belongs  to  us  also,  and  great  would  be  our 
consolation  were  we  permitted  to  follow  him  to  the 
grave,  and  to  place  him  where  he  would  not  have  been 
unwilling  to  lie — by  the  side  of  his  illustrious  fellow- 
labourers  in  the  cause  of  freedom." 


MR.   WILBERFORCE. 


MR.  WILBERFORCE. 


Contemporary  with  Lord  Grenville  and  Mr.  Pitt, 
whose  intimate  friend  he  was,  and  whose  partisan  for  a 
time,  appeared  a  man,  in  some  respects  more  illustrious 
than  either — one  who,  among  the  greatest  benefactors 
of  the  human  race,  holds  an  exalted  station — one  whose 
genius  was  elevated  by  his  virtues,  and  exalted  by  his 
piety.  It  is,  unfortunately,  hardly  necessary  to  name 
one  whom  the  vices  and  the  follies  of  the  age  have 
already  particularised,  by  making  it  impossible  that 
what  has  been  said  could  apply  to  any  but  Mr.  Wil- 
berforce. 

Few  persons  have  ever  either  reached  a  higher  and 
more  enviable  place  in  the  esteem  of  their  fellow-crea- 
tures, or  have  better  deserved  the  place  they  had  gained, 
than  William  Wilberforce.  He  was  naturally  a  person 
of  great  quickness  and  even  subtilty  of  mind,  with  a 
lively  imagination,  approaching  to  playfulness  of  fancy ; 
and  hence  he  had  wit  in  an  unmeasured  abundance,  and 
in  all  its  varieties;  for  he  was  endowed  with  an  exquisite 
sense  of  the  ludicrous  in  character,  the  foundation  of 
humour,  as  well  as  with  the  perception  of  remote  re- 
semblances, the  essence  of  wit.  These  qualities,  how- 
ever, he  had  so  far  disciplined  his  faculties  as  to  keep  in 
habitual  restraint,  lest  he  should  ever  offend  against  strict 
decorum,  by  introducing  light  matter  into  serious  discus- 
sion, or  be  betrayed  into  personal  remarks  too  poignant 
for  the  feelings  of  individuals.  For  his  nature  was  mild 
and  amiable  beyond  that  of  most  men;  fearful  of  giving 
the  least  pain  in  any  quarter,  even  while  heated  with  the 
zeal  of  controversy  on  questions  that  roused  all  his  pas- 
sions; and  more  anxious,  if  it  were  possible,  to  gain  over 
rather  than  to  overpower  an  adversary  and  disarm  him 


82  MR.  WILBERFORCE. 

by  kindness,  or  the  force  of  reason,  or  awakeningappeals 
to  his  feeiinojs,  rather  than  defeat  him  bv  hostile  attack. 
His  natural  talents  were  cultivated,  and  his  taste  refined 
by  all  the  resources  of  a  complete  Cambridge  education, 
in  which,  while  the  classics  were  sedulously  studied,  the 
mathematics  were  not  neglected;  and  he  enjoyed  in  the 
society  of  his  intimate  friends,  Mr.  Pitt  and  Dean  Milner, 
the  additional  benefit  of  foreign  travel,  having  passed 
nearly  a  year  in  France,  after  the  dissolution  of  Lord 
Shelburne's  administration  had  removed  Mr.  Pitt  from 
office.  Having  entered  parliament  as  member  for  Hull, 
where  his  family  were  the  principal  commercial  men  of 
the  place,  he  soon  afterwards,  upon  the  ill-fated  coalition 
destroying  all  confidence  in  the  Whig  party,  succeeded 
Mr.  Foljambe  as  member  for  Yorkshire,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  represent  as  long  as  his  health  permitted  him, 
having  only  retired  to  a  less  laborious  seat  in  the  year 
1812.  Although  generally  attached  to  the  Pitt  ministry, 
he  pursued  his  course  wholly  unfettered  by  party  con- 
nexion, steadily  refused  all  office  through  his  whole  life, 
nor  would  lay  himself  under  any  obligations  by  accept- 
ing a  share  of  patronage;  and  he  differed  with  his  illus- 
trious friend  upon  the  two  most  critical  emergencies  of 
his  life,  the  question  of  peace  with  France  in  1795,  and 
the  impeachment  of  Lord  Melville  ten  years  later. 

His  eloquence  was  of  the  highest  order.  It  was  per- 
suasive and  pathetic  in  an  eminent  degree;  but  it  was 
occasionally  bold  and  impassioned,  animated  with  the 
inspiration  which  deep  feeling  alone  can  breathe  into 
spoken  thought,  chastened  by  a  pure  taste,  varied  by 
extensive  information,  enriched  by  classical  allusion, 
sometimes  elevated  by  the  more  sublime  topics  of  holy 
writ — the  thoughts  and  the  spirit 

"  That  touch'd  Isaiah's  hallowed  lips  with  fire." 

Few  passages  can  be  cited  in  the  oratory  of  modern 


MR.  WILBERFORCE.  83 

times  of  a  more  electrical   effect  than  the    singularly- 
felicitous  and  striking;  allusion  to  Mr.  Pitt's  resisting  the 
torrent  of  Jacobin  principles: — "  He  stood  between  the 
living  and  the  dead,  and  the  plague  was  stayed."     The 
singular  kindness,  the  extreme    gentleness  of  his  dis- 
position, wholly  free  from    gall,  from  A^anity,  or   any 
selfish  feeling,  kept  him  from  indulging  in  any  of  the 
vituperative    branches    of   rhetoric;    but    a    memorable 
instance  showed  that  it  was  any  thing  rather  than  the 
want  of  power  which  held  him  off  from  the  use  of  the 
weapons  so  often  in  almost  all  other  men's  hands.    When 
a  well-known  popular  member  thought  fit  to  designate 
him  repeatedly,  and  very  irregularly,  as  the  ^'Honour- 
able   and   religious  gentleman,"    not    because    he  was 
ashamed  of  the  Cross  he  gloried  in,  but  because  he  felt 
indignant  at  any  one  in  the  British  senate  deeming  piety 
a  matter  of  imputation,  he  poured  out  a  strain  of  sarcasm 
which  none  who  heard  it  can  ever  forget.     A  common 
friend  of  the  parties  having  remarked  to  Sir  Samuel  Ro- 
milly,  beside  whom  he  sat,  that  this  greatly  outmatched 
Pitt  himself,  the  great  master  of  sarcasm,  the  reply  of 
that  great  man  and  just  observer,  was  worthy  to  be  re- 
marked,— "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  it  is  the  most  striking  thing 
I  almost  ever  heard;  but  I  look  upon  it  as  a  more  sin- 
gular proof  of  Wilberforces  vii>tue  than  of  his  genius, 
for  who  but  he  ever  was  possessed  of  such  a  formidable 
weapon,  and  never  used  it?" 

Against  all  these  accomplishments  of  a  finished  orator 
there  was  little  to  set  on  the  other  side.  A  feeble  con- 
stitution, which  made  him  say,  all  his  life,  that  he  never 
was  either  well  or  ill;  a  voice  sweetly  musical  beyond 
that  of  most  men,  and  of  great  compass  also,  but  some- 
times degenerating  into  a  whine;  a  figure  exceedingly 
undignified  and  ungraceful,  though  the  features  of  the 
face  were  singularly  expressive;  and  a  want  of  conden- 
sation, in  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  especially,  lapsing 
into  digression,  and  ill  calculated  for  a  very  business- 


84  MR.  WILEERFORCE. 

like  audience  like  the  House  of  Commons — these  may- 
be noted  as  the  only  drawbacks  which  kept  him  out  of 
the  very  first  place  among  the  first  speakers  of  his  age, 
whom,  in  pathos,  and  also  in  graceful  and  easy  and 
perfectly  elegant  diction,  as  well  as  harmonious  periods, 
he  unquestionably  excelled.  The  influence  which  the 
Member  for  Yorkshire  always  commanded  in  the  old 
Parliament — the  great  weight  which  the  head,  indeed, 
the  founder,  of  a  powerful  religious  sect,  possessed  in 
the  country — would  have  given  extraordinary  authority 
in  the  senate  to  one  of  far  inferior  personal  endowments. 
But  when  these  partly  accidental  circumstances  were 
added  to  his  powers,  and  when  the  whole  were  used  and 
applied  with  the  habits  of  industry  which  naturally  be- 
longed to  one  of  his  extreme  temperance  in  every  re- 
spect, it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  one  bringing  a  greater 
force  to  the  aid  of  any  cause  which  he  m.ight  espouse. 

Wherefore,  when  he  stood  forward  as  the  leader  of 
the  Abolition,  vowed  implacable  war  against  Slavery 
and  the  Slave  Trade,  and  consecrated  his  life  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  its  destruction,  there  was  every  advan- 
tage conferred  upon  this  great  cause,  and  the  rather  that 
he  held  himself  aloof  from  party  connexion.  A  few 
personal  friends,  united  with  him  by  a  similarity  of  reli- 
gious opinions,  might  be  said  to  form  a  small  party,  and 
they  generally  acted  in  concert,  especially  in  all  matters 
relating  to  the  Slave  question.  Of  these,  Henry  Thorn- 
ton was  the  most  eminent  in  every  respect.  He  was  a 
man  of  strong  understanding,  great  powers  of  reasoning 
and  of  investigation,  an  accurate  and  a  curious  observer, 
but  who  had  neither  cultivated  oratory  at  all,  nor  had 
received  a  refined  education,  nor  had  extended  his  read- 
ing be3^ond  the  subjects  connected  with  moral,  political, 
and  theological  learning.  The  trade  of  a  banker,  which 
he  followed,  engrossed  much  of  his  time;  and  his  exer- 
tions, both  in  Parliament  and  through  the  press,  were 
chiefly  confined  to  the  celebrated  controversy  upon  the 


MR.  WILBERFORCE.  85 

currency,  in  which  his  well-known  work  led  the  way, 
and  to  a  bill  for  restricting  the  Slave  Trade  to  part  of 
the  African  coast,  which  he  introduced  when  the  Aboli- 
tionists were  wearied  out  with  their  repeated  failures, 
and  had  well  nigh  abandoned  all  hopes  of  carrying  the 
great  measure  itself.  That  measure  was  fated  to  under- 
go much  vexatious  delay ;  nor  is  there  any  great  ques- 
tion of  justice  and  policy,  the  history  of  which  is  less 
creditable  to  the  British  Parliament,  or,  indeed,  to  some 
of  the  statesmen  of  this  country,  although  upon  it  main- 
ly rests  the  fame  of  others. 

When  Mr.  VVilberforce,  following  in  Mr.  Clarkson's 
track,  had,  with  matchless  powers  of  eloquence,  sus- 
tained by  a  body  of  the  clearest  evidence,  unveiled  all  the 
horrors  of  a  traffic,  which,  had  it  been  attended  with 
neither  fraud  nor  cruelty  of  any  kind,  was,  confessedly, 
from  beginning  to  end,  not  a  commerce,  but  a  crime,  he 
was  defeated  by  large  majorities,  year  after  year.  When, 
at  length,  for  the  first  time,  in  1804,  he  carried  the  Abo- 
lition Bill  through  the  Commons,  the  Lords  immediate- 
ly threw  it  out;  and  the  next  year  it  was  again  lost  in 
the  Commons.     All  this  happened  while  the  opinion  of 
the  country  was,  with  the  single  exception  of  persons 
having  West  India  connexions,  unanimous  in  favour  of 
the  measure.   At  different  times  there  was  the  strongest 
and  most  general  expression  of  public  feeling  upon  the 
subject,  and  it  was  a  question  upon  which  no  two  men, 
endowed  with  reason,  could  possibly  differ,  because,  ad- 
mitting whatever  could  be  alleged  about  the  profits  of 
the  traffic,  it  was  not  denied  that  the  gain  proceeded 
from  pillage  and  murder.   Add  to  all  this,  that  the  enor- 
mous evil  continued  to  disgrace  the  country  and  its  le- 
gislature for  twenty  years,  although  the  voice  of  every 
statesman  of  any  eminence,  Mr.  Windham  alone  ex- 
cepted, was   strenuously   lifted    against   it,    although, 
upon  this  only  question,  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Burke  heartily 
agreed, — although  by  far  the  finest  of  all  Mr.  Pitt's 

VOL.  11.  8 


86  3IR.  WILBERFORCE. 

speeches  were  those  which  he  pronounced  against  it, — 
and  although  every  press  and  every  pulpit  in  the  island 
habitually  cried  it  down.  How  are  we,  then,  to  account 
for  the  extreme  tenacity  of  life  which  the  hateful  reptile 
showed?  How  to  explain  the  fact  that  all  those  power- 
ful hands  fell  paralyzed  and  could  not  bring  it  to  death? 
If  little  honour  redounds  to  the  Parliament  from  this  pas- 
sage in  our  history,  and  if  it  is  thus  plainly  shown  that 
the  unreformed  House  of  Commons  but  ill  represented 
the  country,  it  must  also  be  confessed  that  Mr.  Pitt's 
conduct  gains  as  little  glory  from  the  retrospect.  How 
could  he,  who  never  sufi'ered  any  of  his  coadjutors,  much 
less  his  underlings  in  office,  to  thwart  his  will  even  in 
trivial  matters — he  who  would  have  cleared  any  of  the 
departments  of  half  their  occupants,  had  they  presumed 
to  have  an  opinion  of  their  own  upon  a  single  item  of 
any  budget,  or  an  article  in  the  year's  estimates — how 
could  he,  after  shaking  the  walls  of  the  Senate  with  the 
thunders  of  his  majestic  eloquence,  exerted  with  a  zeal 
which  set  at  defiance  all  suspicions  of  his  entire  sincerity, 
quietly  suffer,  that  the  object,  just  before  declared  the 
dearest  to  his  heart,  should  be  ravished  from  him  when 
within  his  sight,  nay,  within  his  reach,  by  the  votes  of 
the  secretaries  and  under-secretaries,  the  puisne  lords 
and  the  other  fry  of  mere  placemen, — the  pawns  of  his 
boards?  It  is  a  question  often  anxiously  put  by  the 
friends  of  the  Abolition,  never  satisfactorily  answered 
by  those  of  the  Minister;  and  if  any  additional  com- 
ment were  wanting  on  the  darkest  passage  of  his  life, 
it  is  supplied  by  the  ease  with  which  he  cutoff  the  Slave 
traffic  of  the  conquered  colonies,  an  importation  of  thirty 
thousand  yearly,  which  he  had  so  long  suffered  to  exist, 
though  an  Order  in  Council  could  any  day  have  extin- 
guished it.  This  he  never  thought  of  till  1805,  and  then, 
of  course,  the  instant  he  chose,  he  destroyed  it  for  ever 
with  a  stroke  of  his  pen.  Again,  when  the  Whigs  were 
in  power,  they  found  the  total  abolition  of  the  traffic  so 


MR.  WILBERFORCE.  87 

easy,  that  the  measure  in  pursuing  which  Mr.  Pitt  had 
for  so  many  long  years  allowed  himself  to  be  baffled, 
was  carried  by  them  with  only  sixteen  dissentient  voices 
in  a  house  of  250  members.  There  can  then,  unhappily, 
be  but  one  answer  to  the  question  regarding  Mr.  Pitt's 
conduct  on  this  great  measure.  He  was,  no  doubt, 
quite  sincere,  but  he  was  not  so  zealous  as  to  risk  any 
thing,  to  sacrifice  any  thing,  or  even  to  give  himself  any 
extraordinary  trouble  for  the  accomplishment  of  his 
purpose.  The  Court  was  decidedly  against  abolition; 
George  III.  always  regarded  the  question  with  abhor- 
rence, as  savouring  of  innovation, — and  innovation  in  a 
part  of  his  empire,  connected  with  his  earliest  and  most 
rooted  prejudices, — the  Colonies.  The  courtiers  took, 
as  is  their  wont,  the  colour  of  their  sentiments  from  him. 
The  Peers  were  of  the  same  opinion.  Mr.  Pitt  had  not 
the  enthusiasm  for  right  and  justice,  to  risk  in  their  be- 
half losing  the  friendship  of  the  mammon  of  unright- 
eousness, and  he  left  to  his  rivals,  when  they  became 
his  successors,  the  glory  of  that  triumph  in  the  sacred 
cause  of  humanity,  which  should  have  illustrated  his 
name,  who^  in  its  defence  had  raised  all  the  strains  of 
his  eloquence  to  their  very  highest  pitch. 


R.    CANNING. 


8* 


MR.  CANNING. 


When  Mr.  Pitt  stood  against  the  united  powers  of 
the  coalition  by  the  support  of  the  country  and   the 
people,  in  debate  he  had  only  Mr.  Dundas,  and  occa- 
sionally Mr.  Wilberforce,  to  whom  he  could  look  for 
assistance  while  attacked  by  Fox,  Burke,  North,  Sheri- 
dan, Erskine,  Windham.     But   a   younger  race  after- 
wards   grew  up  and    came    to    his    assistance;    and    of 
these  Mr.  Canning  was  undoubted!}''  the  first.     He  was, 
in  all  respects,  one  of  the    most   remarkable    persons 
who   lived   in   our   times.     Born   with    talents   of  the 
highest   order,  these  had  been    cultivated  with  an  as- 
siduity and  success  whicli  placed  him  in  the  first  rank 
among  the  most  accomplished  scholars  of  his  day;  and 
he  was  only  inferior  to  others  in  the  walks  of  science, 
from  the  accident  of  the  studies  which  Oxford  cherished 
in  his  time  being   pointed  almost  exclusively  to  clas- 
sical  pursuits.     But  he  was  any  thing   rather   than   a 
mere   scholar.     In    him  were   combined,  with   a   rich 
profusion,  the  most  lively  original  fancy — a  happily  re- 
tentive and  ready  memory — singular  powers  of  lucid 
statement — and  occasionally  wit  in  all  its  varieties,  now 
biting  and  sarcastic  to  overwhelm  an  antagonist — now 
pungent  or  giving  point  to  an  argument — now  playful 
for  mere  amusement,  and  bringing  relief  to  a  tedious 
statement,  or  lending  a  charm  to  dry  chains  of  close 
reasoning — Erant  ea  in  Philippo  quae,  qui   sine  com- 
paratione  illorum  spectaret,  satis  magna  dixerit;  sum- 
ma  libertas  in  oratione,  multse  facetiaj  satis  creber  in 
reprehendendis,  solutus  in  explicandis  sententiis;    erat 
etiam    imprimis,  ut  temporibus   illis,  Grsecis  doctrinis 
institutus,  in  altercando  cum  aliquo  acculeo  et  male- 


92  MR.  CANNING. 

dicto  facetus. — (Cic,  Bruius.)  Superficial  observerSj 
dazzled  by  this  brilliancy,  and  by  its  sometimes  being 
over-indulged,  committed  their  accustomed  mistake, 
and  supposed  that  he  who  could  thus  adorn  his  subject 
was  an  amusing  speaker  only,  while  he  was  helping 
on  the  argument  at  every  step, — often  making  skilful 
statements  perform  the  office  of  reasoning,  and  oftener 
still  seeming  to  be  witty  when  he  was  merely  exposing 
the  weakness  of  hostile  positions,  and  thus  taking  them 
by  the  artillery  of  his  wit.  But  in  truth  his  powers  of 
ordinary  reasoning  were  of  a  very  high  order,  and  could 
not  be  excelled  by  the  most  practised  master  of  dialect- 
ics. It  was  rather  in  the  deep  and  full  measure  of 
impassioned  declamation  in  its  legitimate  combination 
with  rapid  argument,  the  highest  reach  of  oratory, 
that  he  failed;  and  this  he  rarely  attempted.  Of  his, 
powers  of  argumentation,  his  capacity  for  the  pursuits 
of  abstract  science,  his  genius  for  adorning  the  least 
attractive  subjects,  there  remains  an  imperishable  re- 
cord in  his  celebrated  speeches  upon  the  "  Currency," 
of  all  his  efforts  the  most  brilliant  and  the  most  happy. 

This  great  man  was  the  slave  of  no  mean  or  paltry 
passions,  but  a  lofty  ambition  inspired  him;  and  had  he 
not  too  early  become  trained  to  official  habits,  he  would 
have  avoided  the  distinguished  error  of  his  life,  an  im- 
pression which  clung  to  him  from  the  desk,  that  no 
one  can  usefully  serve  his  country,  or  effectually  further 
his  principles,  unless  he  possess  the  power  which 
place  alone  bestows.  The  traces  of  this  belief  are  to 
be  seen  in  many  of  the  most  remarkable  passages  of  his 
life;  and  it  even  appears  in  the  song  with  which  he 
celebrated  the  praise  of  his  illustrious  leader  and  friend; 
for  he  treats  as  a  fall  his  sacrificing  power  to  principle, 
at  a  time  when  by  retiring  from  office  Mr.  Pitt  had 
earned  the  applause  of  millions.  Mr,  Canning  himself 
gave  an  example  yet  more  signal  of  abandoning  office 


MR.  CANNING.  93 

rather  than  tarnish  his  fame;  and  no  act  of  his  Hfc  can 
be  cited  which  sheds  a  greater  lustre  on  his  memory. 

In  private  society  he  was  singularly  amiable  and 
attractive,  though,  except  for  a  very  few  years  of  his 
early  youth,  he  rarely  frequented  the  circles  of  society, 
confining  his  intercourse  to  an  extremely  small  number 
of  warmly  attached  friends.*  In  all  the  relations  of 
domestic  life  he  was  blameless,  and  was  the  delight  of 
his  family,  as  in  them  he  placed  his  own.t  His  temper, 
though  naturally  irritable  and  uneasy,  had  nothing  petty 
or  spiteful  in  it;  and  as  no  one  better  knew  how  and 
when  to  resent  an  injury,  so  none  could  more  readily 
or  more  gracefully  forgive. 

It  is  supposed  that,  from  his  early  acquaintance  with 
Mr.  Sheridan  and  one  or  two  other  Whigs,  he  originally 
had  a  leaning  towards  that  side  of  the  question.  But 
he  entered  into  public  life  at  a  very  early  age,  under 
the  auspices  of  Mr,  Pitt,  to  whom  he  continued  steadily 
attached  till  his  death;  accompanying  him  when  he 
retired  from  power,  and  again  quitting  office  upon  his 
decease.  His  principles  were  throughout  those  of  a  li- 
beral Tory,  above  the  prejudices  of  the  bigots  who  have 
rendered  Toryism  ridiculous,  and  free  from  the  corrup- 
tion that  has  made  it  hateful.     Imbued  with  a  warm 


*  It  is  necessary  to  state  this  undoubted  fact,  that  the  folly  of  those 
may  be  rebuked,  who  have  chosen  to  represent  him  as  "  a  great  diner- 
out."  It  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  none  of  those  historians  of  the 
day  ever  once  saw  him  at  table. 

t  It  is  well  known  how  much  more  attachment  was  conceived  for 
his  memory  by  his  family  and  his  devoted  personal  friends,  than  by  his 
most  staunch  political  adherents.  The  friendships  of  statesmen  are 
proverbially  of  rotten  texture;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  ever  this  rottenness 
was  displayed  in  a  more  disgusting  manner  than  when  the  puny  men 
of  whose  nostrils  he  had  been  the  breath,  joined  his  worst  enemies  as 
soon  as  they  had  laid  him  in  the  grave.  It  was  said  by  one  hardly 
ever  related  to  him  but  in  open  hostility,  that  "  the  gallantry  of  his 
kindred  had  rescued  his  memory  from  the  offices  of  his  friends," — in 
allusion  to  Lord  Clanricarde's  most  powerful  and  touching  appeal  on 
that  disgraceful  occasion. 


94  MR.  CANNING. 

attachment  to  the  ancient  institutions  of  the  country, 
somewhat  apt  to  overrate  the  merits  of  mere  antiquity, 
from  his  classical  habits,  and  from  early  association,  he 
nevertheless  partook  largely  in  the  improved  spirit  of 
the  age,  and  adopted  all  reforms,  except  such  as  he  con- 
scientiously believed  were  only  dictated  by  a  restless 
love  of  change,  and  could  do  no  good,  or  such  as  w-ent 
too  far,  and  threatened  revolution.  But  this  was  the  pos- 
ture into  which  his  opinions  and  principles  may  be  said 
ultimately  to  have  subsided — these  the  bearings  of  his 
mind  towards  the  great  objects  of  political  controversy 
in  the  station  which  it  finally  took  when  the  tempest  of 
French  convulsion  had  ceased,  and  statesmen  were 
moored  in  still  water.  He  began  his  career  in  the  most 
troublous  period  of  the  storm;  and  it  happened  to  him,  as 
to  all  men,  that  the  tone  of  his  sentiments  upon  state  af- 
fairs was  very  much  influenced  through  after  times  by  the 
events  which  first  awakened  his  ambition,  or  directed  his 
earliest  pursuit  of  glory.  The  atrocities  of  the  French 
Jacobins — thethoughtless  violenceof  the  extreme  demo- 
cratic party  in  this  country,  reduced  by  those  atrocities 
to  a  small  body — the  spirit  of  aggression  which  the  con- 
duct of  her  neighbours  had  first  roused  in  France, 
and  which  unexampled  victories  soon  raised  to  a  pitch 
that  endangered  all  national  independence — led  Mr. 
Canning  with  many  others  who  naturally  were  friendly 
to  liberty,  into  a  course  of  hostility  towards  all  change, 
because  they  became  accustomed  to  confound  reform 
with  revolution,  and  to  dread  nothing  so  much  as  the  mis- 
chiefs which  popular  violence  had  produced  in  France, 
and  with  which  the  march  of  French  conquests  threat- 
ened to  desolate  Europe.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that 
the  most  vigorous  and  the  most  active  portion  of  his 
life  was  passed  in  opposing  all  reforms;  in  patronising 
the  measures  of  coercion  into  which  Mr.  Pitt  had  so 
unhappily  for  his  fame  and  for  his  country,  been 
seduced   by  the  alarms  of  weak,  and  by  the  selfish 


MR.  CANNING.  95 

schemes  of  unprincipled  men;  and  in  resisting  the  at- 
tempts which  the  friends  of  peace  persevered  to  make 
for  terminating  hostihties,  so  long  the  curse,  and  still  by 
their  fruits  the  bane  of  this  empire. 

It  was  not  till  the  end  of  the  war  that  his  natural 
good  sense  had  its  free  scope,  and  he  became  aware  of 
the  difference  between  Reform,  of  which  he  admitted 
the  necessity,  and  Revolution,  against  all  risk  of  which 
he  anxiously  guarded.  He  had  early  joined  Mr.  Pitt 
on  the  Catholic  question,  and,  while  yet  the  war  raged, 
he  had  rendered  incalculable  service  to  the  cause  of 
Emancipation,  by  devoting  to  it  some  of  his  most  bril- 
liant displays  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This,  with 
the  accident  of  a  contested  election  in  a  great  town, 
bringing  him  more  in  contact  with  popular  feelings  and 
opinions,  contributed  to  the  liberal  course  of  policy  on 
almost  all  subjects,  which  he  afterwards  pursued.  Upon 
one  only  question  he  continued  firm  and  unbending;  he 
was  the  most  uncompromising  adversary  of  all  Parlia- 
mentary Reform, — resisting  even  the  least  change  in 
the  representative  system,  and  holding  that  alteration 
once  begun  was  fatal  to  its  integrity.*  This  opposition 
to  reform,  became  the  main  characteristic  of  the  Can- 
ning party,  and  it  regulated  their  conduct  on  ahiiost  all 
questions.  Before  1831,  no  exception  can  be  perceived 
in  their  hostility  to  reform,  unless  their  differing  with 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  on  East  Retford,  can  be  re- 
garded as  such;  but,  in  truth,  their  avowed  reason  for 
supporting  that  most  insignificant  measure  was,  that 
the  danger  of  a  real  and  effectual  reform  might  thereby 
be  warded  off.     The  friends  of  Mr.  Canning,  inclu- 

*  Daring  the  short  period  of  his  brilliant  administration,  the  ques- 
tion of  disfranchising'  a  bnrgh,  convicted  of  gross  corruption,  gave  rise 
to  the  only  difference  between  him  and  Mr.  Brougham,  who  was  un- 
derstood to  iiave  mainly  contributed  towards  that  junction  of  the  "Whigs 
and  liberal  Tories  wiiich  dissolved  and  scattered  the  old  and  iiigh  Tory 
party;  and  a  division  took  place  in  which  Mr.  Canning  was  defeated. 


96  MR.  CANNING. 

ding  Lords  Palmerston  and  Glenelg,  who,  in  1818,  had 
been  joined  by  Lord  Melbourne,*  continued  steady  to 
the  same  principles,  until  happily,  on  the  formation  of 
Lord  Grey's  government,  they  entirely  changed  their 
course,  and  became  the  advocates,  with  their  reform- 
ing colleagues,  of  a  change  compared  to  which  the 
greatest  reforms  ever  contemplated  by  Mr.  Pitt  and 
Mr.  Fox,  or  denounced  by  Mr.  JBurke  and  Mr.  Canning, 
hardly  deserve  to  be  classed  among  measures  of  inno- 
vation. No  one  can  pronounce  with  perfect  confi- 
dence on  the  conduct  which  any  statesman  would  have 
pursued,  had  he  survived  the  times  in  which  he 
flourished.  But  if  such  an  opinion  may  ever  with  safety 
be  formed,  it  seems  to  be  in  the  present  case ;  and  it 
would  require  far  more  boldness  to  surmise  that  Mr. 
Canning,  or  even  Mr.  Huskisson,  would  have  continued 
in  the  government  after  the  first  of  March,  1831,  than 
to  afiirm  that  nothing  could  ever  have  induced  such  an 
alteration  in  their  most  fixed  opinions  upon  so  momen- 
tous a  question. 

But  while  such  was  the  strength  of  his  opinions, 
— prejudices  as  they  seem, — on  one  great  subject,  on 
almost  all  other  matters,  whether  of  foreign  or  domes- 
tic policy,  his  views  were  liberal  and  suited  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  while  he  was  a  firm  supporter  of  the 
established  constitution  of  the  country.  If  ever  man 
was  made  for  the  service  and  the  salvation  of  a  party, 
Mr.  Canning  seemed  to  have  been  raised  up  for  that  of 
the  Tories  :  if  ever  party  committed  a  fatal  error,  it 
was  their  suffering  groundless  distrust,  and  unintelligible 
dishke  to  estrange  him  from  their  side.  At  a  time 
when  nothing  but  his  powerful  arm  could  recall  unity  to 

*  Lord  Melbourne  differed  from  the  rest  of  the  Canning  part)'  on 
this  point.  lie  always  opposed  Reform,  but  held  that  if  any  was  to  be 
granted,  it  must  be  in  an  ample  measure;  and  he  did  not  vote  with 
tliem,  but  with  the  government,  on  the  Reform  question,  although  he 
resigned  with  them  upon  that  occasion. 


MR.  CANNING.  97 

their  camp,  and  save  them  from  impending  destruction, 
they  not  merely  wilfully  kindled  the  wrath  of  Achilles, 
but  resolved  that  he  should  no  longer  fjght  on  their  side, 
and  determined  to  throw  away  their  last  chance  of 
winning  the  battle.  To  him  they  by  general  assent 
preferred  Lord  Castlereagh  as  their  leader,  without  a 
single  shining  quality  except  the  carriage  and  the  man- 
ners of  high  birth:  while  Mr.  Canning,  but  for  his  acci- 
denttfl  death,  would  have  ended  his  life  as  governor  of 
a  country  where  men  neither  debate,  nor  write;  where 
eloquence  evaporates  in  scores  of  paragra|)hs,  and  the 
sparkling  of  wit  and  the  cadence  of  rhyme  are  alike 
unknown. 

The  defects  of  Mr.  Canning's  character  or  of  his 
genius  were  not  many,  nor  those  difficult  to  discover. 
His  irritable  temper  has  been  noted;  he  had  a  love  of 
trifling  and  a  fondness  for  indulging  in  pleasantry,  more 
injurious  to  his  estimation  with  ordinary  men  than  his 
temper.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  one 
who  so  much  excelled  others  in  these  lighter,  more 
brilliant,  but  hardly  attainable  qualities,  should  be  prone 
to  exercise  them  over-much;  but  they  greatly  marred 
the  effect  of  his  more  solid  and  important  talents.  Above 
all,  they  enlarged  the  circle  of  his  enemies,  and  occa- 
sionally transferred  to  it  the  friends  whom  they  lost  him. 
With  the  common  run  of  ordinary  mortals,  who  compose 
the  mass  of  every  country — with  the  plainer  sort  of  men 
who  form  the  bulk  of  every  audience,  and  who  especially 
bear  sway  in  their  own  appointed  place,  the  assembly 
that  represents  the  English  people, — it  would  have  been 
contrary  to  nature  if  one  so  lively,  so  fond  of  his  joke, 
so  careless  whom  his  merriment  might  otlend,  so  ready 
to  turn  the  general  laugh  against  any  victim, — had  been 
popular,  nay,  had  failed  to  prove  the  object  of  suspi- 
cion, and  even  dislike.  The  duller  poriicn,  over  whose 
heads  his  lighter  missiles  flew,  were  offended  with  one 
who  spoke  so  Ughtly;  it  was  almost  personal  to  them  if 

VOL.  n.  9 


98  MR.  CANNING. 

he  jested,  and  a  classical  allusion  was  next  thing  to  an 
affront.  "  He  will  be  laughing  at  the  quorunn  or  talking 
metaphysics  next,"  said  the  squire,  representing  a  coun- 
ty. But  even  they  who  emulated  him  and  favoured  his 
claims,  did  not  much  like  the  man  who  had  made  them 
so  merry,  for  they  felt  what  it  was  that  they  laughed  ai, 
and  it  might  be  their  own  turn  to-morrow. 

That  his  oratory  suffered  materially  from  this  self- 
indulgent  habit,  so  hard  to  resist  by  him  who  possesses 
the  faculty  of  amusing  his  audience,  and  can  scarcely 
pause  at  the  moment  that  he  is  exerting  it  successfully, 
it  would  be  incorrect  to  affirm.  The  graver  parts  of  his 
discourse  were  perfectly  sustained;  they  were  unmixed 
with  ribaldry;  ihey  were  quite  as  powerful  in  themselves 
as  if  they  had  not  stood  out  from  the  inferior  matter  and 
had  not  soared  above  it.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  with  an  unreflecting  audience,  their  efiect  was  some- 
what confused  by  the  cross  lights  which  the  wit,  some- 
times bordering  upon  drollery,  shot  over  the  canvass.  But 
his  declamation,  though  often  powerful,  always  beauti- 
fully ornate,  never  deficient  in  admirable  diction, was  cer- 
tainly not  of  the  very  highest  class.  It  wanted  depth  :  it 
came  from  the  moulh,  not  from  the  heart;  and  it  tickled 
or  even  filled  the  ear  rather  than  penetrated  the  bosom  of 
the  listener.  The  orator  never  seemed  to  forget  himself 
and  be  absorbed  in  his  theme;  he  was  not  carried  away 
by  his  passions,  and  he  carried  not  his  audience  along 
with  him.  An  actor  stood  before  us,  a  first-rate  one  no 
doubt,  but  still  an  actor:  and  we  never  forgot  that  it  was 
a  representalion  we  were  witnessing,  not  a  real  scene. 
The  Grecian  artist  was  of  the  second  class  only,  at  whose 
fruit  the  birds  pecked  ;  while,  on  seeing  Farrhasius's  pic- 
ture, men  cried  out  to  draw  aside  the  curtain.  Mr.  Can- 
ning's exclamation  entertained  his  hearers,  so  artistly 
was  it  executed;  but  only  an  inexperienced  critic  could 
mistake  it  for  the  highest  reach  of  the  rhetorical  art. 
The  truly  great  orator  is  he  who  carries  away  his  hearer, 


MR.  CANNING.  99 

or  fixes  his  whole  attention  on  the  subject — with  the  sub- 
ject fills  his  whole  soul — than  the  subject,  will  sufler  him 
to  think  of  no  other  thing — of  the  subject's  existence 
alone  will  let  him  be  concious,  while  the  vehement  in- 
spiration lasts  on  his  own  mind  which  he  communicates 
to  his  hearer — and  will  only  suflfer  him  to  reflect  on  the 
admirable  execution  of  what  he  has  heard  after  the  burst 
is  over,  the  whirlwind  has  passed  away,  and  the  excited 
feelings  have  in  the  succeeding  lull  sunk  into  repose. 

The  vice  of  this  statesman's  public  principle  was 
much  more  pernicious  in  its  influence  upon  his  public 
conduct,  than  the  defects  which  we  have  just  remarked 
were  upon  his  oratory.  Bred  up  in  office  from  his  early 
years,  he  had  become  so  much  accustomed  to  its  plea- 
sures that  he  felt  uneasy  when  they  were  taken  from  him. 
It  was  in  him  nothing  like  a  sordid  propensity  that  pro- 
duced this  frame  of  mind.  For  emolument,  he  felt  the 
most  entire  indifterence  ;  upon  the  management  of  petty 
intrigue  which  is  called  jobbing,  he  looked  down  with 
sovereign  contempt.  But  his  extraordinarily  active 
mind,  impatient  of  rest,  was  only  to  be  allayed  by  oc- 
cupation, and  oflice  afforded  this  at  all  hours,  and  in 
boundless  measure.  His  kind  and  friendly  nature, 
attaching  him  strongly  to  his  associates,  as  it  strongly 
fixed  their  affections  upon  him,  made  him  feel  uneasy 
at  their  exclusion  from  power,  and  desirous  to  possess 
the  means  of  gratifying  them.  Above  all,  though  a 
great  debater,  and  breathing  the  air  of  Parliament  as 
the  natural  element  of  his  beinsr,  he  vet  was  a  man  of 
action  too,  and  would  sway  the  counsels  as  well  as 
shake  the  senates  of  his  country.  He  loved  debate  for 
its  exercise  of  his  great  faculties;  he  loved  power  for 
its  own  sake,  caring  far  less  for  display  than  for  gratifi- 
cation. Hence,  when  he  retired  from  office  upon  the 
dispute  with  Lord  Castlereagh,  (a  passage  of  his  life 
much  and  unjustly  blamed  at  the  time,  but  which  had  it 
been  ever  so  exactly  as  most  men  then  viewed  it,  has  in 
later  times  been  cast  into  the  thickest  shades  of  oblivion 


100  MR.  CANNING. 

by  acts  infinitely  more  abominable  and  disgraceful,)  and 
when  he  found  that  instead  of  a  speedy  return  to  power 
he  was  condemned  to  years  of  exclusion,  his  impatience 
led  him  to  the  imprudent  step  of  serving  under  his  suc- 
cessful rival  on  a  foreign  mission  of  an  unimportant 
cast.  The  uneasiness  which  he  manifestly  suffered  in 
retirement,  even  made  him  consent  to  the  scheme  of 
more  permanent  expatriation,*  which  only  the  unhappy 
death  of  Lord  Castlereagh  prevented  from  taking  effect. 
But  these  were  rather  matters  affecting  the  person  than 
perverting  the  principles,  or  misguiding  the  conduct  of 
the  party.  The  unfortunate  love  of  power,  carried  too 
far,  and  felt  so  as  to  make  the  gratification  of  it  essen- 
tial to  existence,  is  ruinous  to  the  character  of  a  states- 
man. It  leads  often  to  abandonment  of  principle,  con- 
stantly to  compromise;  it  subjects  him  to  frequent 
dependence;  it  lowers  the  tone  of  his  mind,  and 
teaches  his  spirit  to  feed  on  the  bitter  bread  of  others' 
bounty;  above  all,  it  occasionally  severs  him  from  his 
natural  friends,  and  brings  him  acquainted  with  strange 
and  low  associates,  whose  natures,  as  their  habits,  are 
fit  to  be  scorned  by  him,  and  who  have  with  him  but 
one  thing  in  common,  that  they  seek  the  same  object  with 
himself — they  for  love  of  gain,  he  for  lust  of  dominion. 

Tu  lascerai  ogni  cosa  diletta 

Piu  caramente,  e  questo,  e  quello  strale 

Che  r  arco  d'  es'ilio  prla  saetta, 

Tu  proverai  come  si  sa  di  sale 

Lo  pane  d'  altrui,  e  come  e  duro  calle 

Lo  scendere  e  il  sallr  altrui  scale 

E  che  il  piu  ti  gravera  le  spalle 

Sara  la  compagnia  malvagia  e  scempla 

Che  tu  vedrai  in  questa  vallelf 

Men  are  apt  to  devise  ingenious  excuses  for  those 
failings  which  they  cherish  most  fondly,  and  if  they 
cannot  close  their  eyes  to  them,  had  rather  defend 
than  correct.     Mr.  Canning  reasoned   himself  into  a 

*  As  Governor-General  of  India.  f  Dante,  Par. 


MR. CANNING.  101 

belief  which  he  was  wont  to  profess,  tliat  no  man  can 
serve  his  country  with  effect  out  of  olTice;  as  if  there 
were  no  public  in  this  country;  as  if  there  were  no 
Parliament;  no  forum;  no  press;  as  if  the  Govern- 
ment were  in  the  hands  of  a  Vizier  to  whom  the  Turk 
had  given  his  signet-ring,  or  a  favourite  to  whom  the 
Czarina  had  tossed  her  handkerchief;  as  if  the  patriot's 
vocation  had  ceased  and  the  voice  of  public  virtue  were 
heard  no  more;  as  if  the  people  were  without  power 
over  their  rulers,  and  only  existed  to  be  taxed  and  to 
obey!  A  more  pernicious  notion  never  entered  the 
mind  of  a  public  man,  nor  one  more  fitted  to  under- 
mine his  public  virtue.  It  may  be  made  the  cloak  for 
every  species  of  flagitious  and  sordid  calculation;  and 
what  in  him  was  only  a  sophistical  self-deception,  or  a 
mere  illusion  of  dangerous  self-love,  might  have  been, 
by  the  common  herd  of  trading  politicians,  used  as  the 
cover  for  every  low,  and  despicable,  and  unprincipled 
artifice.  No  errors  are  so  dangerous  as  those  false 
theories  of  morals  which  conceal  the  bounds  between 
right  and  wrong;  enable  Vice  to  trick  herself  out  in  the 
attire  of  Virtue;  and  hide  our  frailties  from  ourselves  by 
throwing  around  them  the  garb  of  profound  wisdom. 

Of  Mr.  Canning  it  may  be  justly  observed,  as  of  Mr. 
Fox,  that  whatever  errors  he  committed  on  other  ques- 
tions, on  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  he  was  unde- 
viatingly  true  to  sound  principles  and  enlightened  policy. 
Respecting  the  questions  connected  with  Emancipation 
his  course  was  by  no  means  so  commendable;  but  of  the 
Abolitionists  he  was  at  once  a  strenuous  and  effective 
ally.  It  is  understood  that  he  deeply  lamented  the  con- 
trast which  Mr.  Pitt's  proceedings  on  this  question 
presented  to  his  speeches;  and  he  insisted  on  bringing 
forward  a  motion  against  the  policy  of  capturing  colonies 
to  extend  the  Slave-traffic,  when  Mr.  Pitt  was  in  re- 
tirement. 

9* 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY. 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY. 


How  different  from  Mr.  Pitt's  conduct  was  that  of 
Lord  Grenville,  who  no  sooner  acceded  to  office  in 
1806,  than  he  encouraged  all  the  measures  which  first 
restrained,  and  then  entirely  abolished  that  infernal 
traffic  !  The  crown  lawyers  of  his  administration  were 
directed  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  abolishing  the  foreign 
slave-trade  of  our  colonies,  as  well  as  all  importation 
into  the  conquered  settlements — and  when  it  is  recol- 
lected that  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  at  that  time  added 
lustre  and  gave  elevation  to  the  office  of  solicitor-ge- 
neral, it  may  well  be  supposed  that  those  duties  were 
cheerfully  and  duly  followed  both  by  him  and  by  his 
honest,  learned,  and  experienced  colleague.  Sir  Ar- 
thur Pigott.  It  is  fit  that  no  occasion  on  which  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly  is  named  should  ever  be  passed  over 
without  an  attempt  to  record  the  virtues  and  endow- 
ments of  so  great  and  so  good  a  man,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  after  ages. 

Few  persons  have  ever  attained  celebrity  of  name 
and  exalted  station,  in  any  country,  or  in  any  age, 
with  such  unsullied  purity  of  character,  as  this  equally 
eminent  and  excellent  person.  His  virtue  was  stern 
and  inflexible,  adjusted,  indeed,  rather  to  the  rigorous 
standard  of  ancient  morality  than  to  the  less  ambitious 
and  less  elevated  maxims  of  the  modern  code.  But  in 
this  he  very  widely  differed  from  the  antique  model 
upon  which  his  character  generally  appeared  to  be 
framed,  and  so  very  far  surpassed  it,  that  there  was 
nothing  either  affected  or  repulsive  about  him;  and  if 
ever  a  man  existed  who  would  more  than  any  other  have 
scorned  the  pitiful  fopperies  which  disfigured  the  worth 


106  SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY. 

of  Cato,  or  have  shrunk  from  the  harsher  virtue  of 
Brutus,  Romilly  was  that  man.  He  was,  in  truth,  a 
person  of  the  most  natural  and  simple  manners,  and 
one  in  whom  the  kindliest  charities  and  warmest  feel- 
ings of  human  nature  were  blended  in  the  largest 
measures  with  that  firmness  of  purpose  and  unrelaxed 
sincerity  of  principle,  in  almost  all  other  men  found  to 
be  little  compatible  with  the  attributes  of  a  gentle  nature 
and  the  feelings  of  a  tender  heart. 

The  observer  who  gazes  upon  the  character  of  this 
great  man  is  naturally  struck  first  of  all  with  its  most 
prominent  feature,  and  that  is  the  rare  excellence  which 
we  have  now  marked,  so  far  above  every  gift  of  the 
understanding,  and  which  throws  the  lustre  of  mere 
genius  into  the  shade.  But  his  capacity  was  of  the 
highest  order.  An  extraordinary  reach  of  thought; 
great  powers  of  attention  and  of  close  reasoning;  a  me- 
mory quick  and  retentive;  a  fancy  eminently  brilliant, 
but  kept  in  perfect  discipline  by  his  judgment  and  his 
taste,  which  was  nice,  cultivated,  and  severe,  without 
any  of  the  squeamishness  so  fatal  to  vigour — these 
w-ere  the  qualities  which,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
most  persevering  industry,  and  with  the  stimulus  of  a 
lofty  ambition,  rendered  him  unquestionably  the  first 
advocate,  and  the  most  profound  lawyer,  of  the  age  he 
flourished  in;  placed  him  high  among  the  ornaments 
of  the  Senate;  and  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have  given 
him  the  foremost  place  among  them  all,  had  not  the 
occupations  of  his  laborious  profession  necessarily  en- 
grossed a  disproportionate  share  of  his  attention,  and 
made  political  pursuits  fill  a  subordinate  place  in  the 
scheme  of  his  life.  Jurisperitorum  diserdssimus,  diser- 
torum  vero  juris-pentissimus.  As  his  practice,  so  his 
authority  at  the  bar  and  with  the  bench  was  unex- 
ampled ;  and  his  success  in  Parliament  was  great  and 
progressive.  Some  of  his  speeches,  both  forensic  and 
Parliamentary,  are  nearly  unrivalled  in  excellence.  The 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY.  107 

reply,  even  as  reported  in  11  Vesey,  junior,  m  the  cause 
o{ Hugonin  v.  Beasley,*  where  legal  matters  chiefly  were 
in  question,  may  give  no  mean  idea  of  his  extraordinary 
powers.  The  last  speech  tliat  he  pronounced  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  upon  a  bill  respecting  the  law  of  na- 
turalization, which  gave  him  occasion  to  paint  the  mis- 
conduct of  the  expiring  Parliament  in  severe  and  even 
dark  colours,  was  generally  regarded  as  unexampled 
among  the  efforts  of  his  eloquence;  nor  can  they,  who 
recollect  its  eilects,  ever  cease  to  lament  with  ten- 
fold bitterness  of  sorrow,  the  catastrophe  which  termi- 
nated his  life,  and  extinguished  his  glory,  when  they  re- 
flect that  the  vast  accession  to  his  influence  from  being 
chosen  for  Westminster,  came  at  a  time  when  his  genius 
had  reached  its  amplest  display,  and  his  authority  in  Par- 
liament, unaided  by  station,  had  attained  the  highest  emi- 
nence. I'he  friend  of  pubHc  virtue,  and  the  advocate  of 
human  improvement,  will  mourn  still  more  sorrowfully 
over  his  urn  than  the  admirers  of  genius,  or  those,  who 
are  dazzled  by  political  triumphs.  For  no  one  could 
know  llomilly,  and  doubt  that,  as  he  only  valued  his 
own  success' and  his  own  powers,  in  the  belief  that  they 
might  conduce  to  the  good  of  mankind,  so  each  aug- 
mentation of  his  authority,  each  step  of  his  progress, 
must  have  been  attended  with  some  trium|ih  in  the  cause 
of  humanity  and  justice.  True,  he  would  at  length,  in 
the  course  of  nature,  have  ceased  to  live;  but  then  the 
bigot  would  have  ceased  to  persecute — the  despot  to 
vex — the  desolate  poor  to  suffer — the  slave  to  groan 
and  tremble — the  iirnorant  to  commit  crimes — and  the 
ill-contrived  law  to  enfrender  criminalitv. 

On  these  things  all  men  are  agreed  ;   but  if  a  more 
distinct  account  be  desired  of  his  eloquence,  it  most  be 

♦  A  case  very  nearly  resembling'  this,  Mcicale  v.  Hussey,  was  argued 
in  the  House  of"  Lords,  in  October,  1831,  by  Mr.  O'Connel!,  and  Ins  ar- 
gument was  a  master-piece,  according  to  the  judgment  oi"  those  who 
heard  it. 


108  SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY. 

said  that  it  united  all  the  more  severe  graces  of  oratory, 
both  as  regards  the  manner  and  the  substance.  No 
man  argued  more  closely  when  the  understanding  was 
to  be  addressed;  no  man  declaimed  more  powerfully 
when  indignation  was  to  be  aroused  or  the  feelings 
moved.  His  language  was  choice  and  pure ;  his  powers 
of  invective  resembled  rather  the  grave  authority  with 
which  the  judge  puts  down  a  contempt,  or  punishes  an 
offender,  than  the  attack  of  an  advocate  against  his  ad- 
versary and  his  equal.  His  imagination  was  the  minis- 
ter whose  services  were  rarely  required,  and  whose 
mastery  was  never  for  an  instant  admitted.  His  sar- 
casm was  tremendous,  nor  always  very  sparingly  em- 
ployed. Ris  manner  was  perfect,  in  voice,  in  figure, 
in  a  countenance  of  singular  beauty  and  dignity;  nor 
was  any  thing  in  his  oratory  more  striking  or  more  ef- 
fective than  the  heartfelt  sincerity  which  it  throughout 
displayed,  in  topic,  in  diction,  in  tone,  in  look,  in  ges- 
ture. "  In  Scauri  oratione  sapientis  hominis  et  recti, 
gra vitas  summa,  et  naturalis  qu?edam  inerat  auctoritas, 
non  ut  causam,  sed  ut  testimonium  dicere  putares.  Sig- 
nificabat  enim  non  prudentiam  solum,  sed,  quod  maxime 
rem  continebat,  fidem."* 

Considering  his  exalted  station  at  the  bar,  his  pure 
and  unsullied  character,  and  the  large  space  which  he 
filled  in  the  eye  of  the  country,  men  naturally  looked 
for  his  ascent  to  the  highest  station  in  the  profession  of 
which  he  was,  during  so  many  years,  the  ornament  and 
the  pride.  Nor  coidd  any  one  question  that  he  would 
have  presented  to  the  world  the  figure  of  a  consummate 
judge.  He  alone  felt  any  doubt  upon  the  extent  of  his 
own  judicial  qualities;  and  he  lias  recorded  in  his 
journal  (that  invaluable  document  in  which  he  was 
wont  to  set  down  freely  his  sentiments  on  men  and 
things)  a  modest  opinion,  expressing  his  apprehension, 

*  Cic,  Brutus. 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY.  109 

should  he  ever  be  so  tried,  that  men  would  say  of  him 
"  Capax  imperii  nisi  imperasset."  With  this  single  ex- 
ception, offering  so  rare  an  instance  of  impartial  self- 
judgment,  and  tending  of  itself  to  its  own  refutation,  all 
who  had  no  interest  in  the  elevation  of  others,  have  held 
his  exclusion  from  the  supreme  place  in  the  law,  as  one 
of  the  heaviest  items  in  the  price  paid  for  the  factious 
structure  of  our  practical  government. 

In  his  private  life  and  personal  habits  he  exhibited  a 
model  for  imitation,  and  an  object  of  unqualified  esteem. 
All  his  severity  was  reserved  for  the  forum  and  the  se- 
nate, when  vice  was  to  be  lashed,  or  justice  vindicated, 
the  public  delinquent  exposed,  or  the  national  oppressor 
overawed.  In  his  family  and  in  society,  where  it  was 
his  delight,  and  the  only  reward  of  his  unremitting  la- 
bours, to  unbend,  he  was  amiable,  simple,  natural,  cheer- 
ful. The  vast  resources  of  his  memory, — the  astonish- 
ing economy  of  time,  by  which  he  was  enabled  to  read 
almost  every  work  of  interest  that  came  from  the  press 
of  either  his  hereditary  or  his  native  country,  either 
France  or  England, — the  perfect  correctness  of  his 
taste,  refined  to  such  a  pitch,  that  his  pencil  was  one  of 
no  ordinary  power,  and  his  verses,  when  once  or  twice 
only  he  wrote  poetry,  were'  of  great  merit, — his  free- 
dom from  affectation, — the  wisdom  of  not  being  above 
doing  ordinary  things  in  the  ordinary  way, — all  con- 
spired to  render  his  society  pecuharly  attractive,  and 
would  have  made  it  courted,  even  had  his  eminence  in 
higher  matters  been  far  less  conspicuous.  While  it  was 
the  saying  of  one  political  adversary,  the  most  expe- 
rienced and  correct  observer*  among  all  the  parlia- 
mentary men  of  his  time,  that  he  never  was  out  of  his 
place  while  Romiliy  spoke  without  finding  that  he  had 
cause  to  lament  his  absence, — it  was  the  confession  of 
all  who  were  admitted  to  his  private  society,  that  they 

*  Mr.  Charles  Long,  afterwards  Lord  Farnborough. 
VOL.  II.  10 


110  SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY. 

forgot  the  lawyer,  the  orator,  and  the  patriot,  and  had 
never  been  aware,  while  gazing  on  him  with  admiration, 
how  much  more  he  really  deserved  that  tribute  than  he 
appeared  to  do  when  seen  from  afar. 

If  defects  are  required  to  be  thrown  into  such  a 
sketch,  and  are  deemed  as  necessary  as  the  shades  in  a 
picture,  or,  at  least,  as  the  more  subdued  tones  of  some 
parts  for  giving  relief  to  others,  this  portraiture  of  Ro- 
milly  must  be  content  to  remain  imperfect.  For  what  is 
there  on  which  to  dwell  with  blame,  if  it  be  not  a  prone- 
ness  to  prejudice  in  favour  of  opinions  resembling  his 
own,  a  blindness  to  the  defects  of  those  who  held  them, 
and  a  prepossession  against  those  who  held  them  not? 
While  there  is  so  very  little  to  censure,  there  is  unhap- 
pily much  to  deplore.  A  morbid  sensibility  embittered 
many  hours  of  his  earlier  life,  and  when  deprived  of 
the  wife  whom  he  most  tenderly  and  justly  loved,  con- 
tributed to  bring  on  an  inflammatory  fever,  in  the  pa- 
roxysm of  which  he  untimely  met  his  end. 

The  Letter  of  Mr.  Brougham,  on  Abuse  of  Charities, 
was  communicated  in  manuscript  to  him  while  attend- 
ing the  sick-bed  of  that  excellent  person,  whose  loss 
brought  on  his  own.  It  tended  to  beguile  some  of  those 
sorrowful  hours,  the  subject  having  long  deeply  engaged 
his  attention;  and  it  was  the  last  thing  that  he  read. 
His  estimate  of  its  merits  was  exceedingly  low;  at  least 
he  said  he  was  sure  no  tract  had  ever  been  published  on 
a  more  dry  subject,  or  was  likely  to  excite  less  attention. 
The  interest  of  the  subject,  however,  was  much  under- 
valued by  him;  for  the  letter  ran  through  eight  editions 
in  the  month  of  October.* 

That  he  highly  approved  of  the  labours  of  the  Edu- 

*  The  last  book  of  any  importance  read  by  him  was  Mr.  Hallam's 
first  great  work,  of  which  ho  justly  formed  the  highest  opinion,  and  re- 
commenced the  immediate  perusal  of  it  to  tlie  author  of  the  Letter,  as 
a  contrast  to  that  performance,  in  respect  of  the  universal  interest  of  the 
subject. 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY.  1  1 1 

cation  Committee,  however,  and  that  the  conduct  of  its 
Chairman  shared  fully  in  his  approval,  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  In  the  last  will  which  he  made,  there  is  a  warm 
expression  of  personal  regard  and  a  strong  testimony  to 
public  merits,  accompanying  a  desire  that  his  friend 
would  join  with  another  whom  we  had  long  known  inti- 
mately, and  whom  he  consequently  most  highly  and  most 
justly  esteemed,  Mr.Whishaw,in  performing  the  ofRce  of 
literary  executor.  The  manuscripts  which  he  left  were 
numerous  and  important.  The  most  interesting  are  the 
beautiful  Sketches  of  his  early  life,  and  the  Journal  to 
which  reference  has  been  already  made.  But  his  com- 
mentaries upon  subjects  connected  with  jurisprudence 
are  those  of  the  greatest  value  ;  for  they  show  that  most 
of  the  reforms  of  which  he  maintains  the  expediency, 
have  since  his  decease  been  adopted  by  the  Legislature ; 
and  they  thus  form  a  powerful  reason  for  adopting  those 
others  which  he  recommends,  and  which  are  not  now 
less  favoured  by  the  general  opinion  of  mankind,  than 
w^ere  the  former  class  at  the  early  period  when  he  wrote. 
The  injunction  to  his  friends  contained  in  his  will,  was 
truly  characteristic  of  the  man.  He  particularly  desired 
them,  in  determining  whether  or  not  the  manuscripts 
should  be  published,  only  to  regard  the  prospect  there 
was  of  their  being  in  any  degree  serviceable  to  mankind, 
and  by  no  means  to  throw  away  a  thought  upon  any 
injury  which  the  appearance  of  such  unfinished  works 
might  do  to  his  literary  character.  Whoever  knew  him, 
indeed,  was  well  persuaded  that  in  all  his  exertions  his 
personal  gratification  never  was  for  a  moment  consulted, 
unless  as  far  as  whatever  he  did,  or  whatever  he  wit- 
nessed in  others,  had  a  relish  for  him  exactly  propor- 
tioned to  its  tendency  towards  the  establishment  of  the 
principles  which  formed,  as  it  were,  a  part  of  his  nature, 
and  towards  the  promotion  of  human  happiness,  the 
grand  aim  of  all  his  views.  This  is  that  colleague  and 
comrade  whose  irreparable  loss  his  surviving  friends 


112  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

have  had  to  deplore  through  all  their  struggles  for  the 
good  cause  in  which  they  had  stood  by  his  side;  a  loss 
which  each  succeeding  day  renders  heavier,  and  harder 
to  bear,  when  the  misconduct  of  sonne,  and  the  incapacity 
of  others,  so  painfully  recall  the  contrast  of  one  whose 
premature  end  gave  the  first  and  the  only  pang  that 
had  ever  come  from  him;  and  all  his  associates  may 
justly  exclaim  in  the  words  of  Tully  regarding  Hor- 
tensius, "  Augebat  etiam  molestiam,  quod  magna  sapien- 
tium  civium  bonorumque  penuria,  vir  egregius,  conjunc- 
tissimusque  mecum  consiliorum  omnium  societate,alien- 
issimo  I'eipublicge  tempore  extinctus,  et  auctoritatis,  et 
prudentise  suss  triste  nobis  desiderium  reliquerat;  dole- 
bamque,  quod  non,  ut  plerique  putabant,  adversarium, 
aut  obtrectatorem  laudum  mearum,  sed  socium  potius  et 
consortem  gloriosi  laboris  amiseram." 


And  here  for  a  moment  let  us  pause.  We  have  been 
gazing  on  the  faint  likenesses  of  many  great  men.  We 
have  been  traversing  a  Gallery,  on  either  side  of  which 
they  stand  ranged.  We  have  made  bold  in  that  edifice 
to  "  expatiate  and  confer  the  State  aftairs  "  of  their  age. 
Cognisant  of  its  history,  aware  of  the  principles  by 
which  the  English  chiefs  are  marshalled,  sagacious  of  the 
springs  that  move  the  politic  wheel  whose  revolutions  we 
contemplate,  it  is  an  easy  thing  for  us  to  comprehend  the 
phenomenon  most  remarkably  presented  by  those  figures 
and  their  arrangement;  nor  are  we  led  to  stare  aghast 
at  that  which  would  astound  any  mind  not  previously 
furnished  with  the  ready  solution  to  make  all  plain  and 
intelHgible.  But  suppose  some  one  from  another  hemi- 
sphere, or  another  world,  admitted  to  the  spectacle 
which  we  find  so  familiar,  and  consider  what  would  be 
its  first  effect  upon  his  mind. — "  Here,"  he  would  say, 
"  stand  the  choicest  spirits  of  their  age;  the  greatest 
wits,  the  noblest  orators,  the  wisest  politicians,  the  most 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  113 

iMustrious  patriots.   Here  they  stand,  whose  hands  have 
been  raised  for  their  country,  whose  magical  eloquence 
has  shook  the  spheres,  whose  genius  has  poured  out 
strains  worthy  the  inspiration  of  the  gods,  whose  lives, 
were  devoted  to  the  purity  of  their  principles,  whose 
memories  were  bequeathed  to  a  race  grateful  for  bene- 
fits received  from  their  sufferings  and  their  sacrifices. 
Here  stand  all  these  "  lights  of  the  world  and  demigods 
of  fame ;"  but  here  they  stand  not  ranged  on  one  side  of 
this  Gallery,  having  served  a  common  country!     With 
the  same  bright  object  in  their  view,  their  efforts  were 
divided,  not  united;  they  fiercely  combated  each  other, 
and    not    together  assailed    some  common  foe ;    their 
great  exertions  were  bestowed,  their  more  than  mortal 
forces  were  expended,  not  in  furthering  the  general 
good,  not  in  resisting  their  country's  enemies,  but  in 
conflicts  among  themselves;  and  all  their  triumphs  were 
won  over  each  other,  and  all  their  sufferings  were  en- 
dured   at  each   other's    hands !" — "  Is   it,"  the   unen- 
lightened stranger  would  add,  "  a  reality  that  I  survey, 
or  a  troubled  vision  that  mocks  my  sight  ?     Am  I  indeed 
contemplating  the  prime  of  men  amongst  a  rational 
people,  or  the  Coryphei  of  a  band  of  mimes?     Or,  hap- 
ly, am  I  admitted  to  survey  the  cells  of  some  hospital 
appointed    for  the  insane;  or  is  it,  peradventure,  the 
vaults  of  some  pandemonium  through  which  my  eyes 
have  been  suffered  to  wander  till  my  vision  aches,  and 
my  brain  is  disturbed?" 

Thus  far  the  untutored  native  of  some  far-distant  wild 
on  earth,  or  the  yet  more  ignorant  inhabitant  of  some 
world  remote,  "beyond  the  solar  walk  or  Milky  Way." 
We  know  more;  we  apprehend  things  better.  But  let 
us,  even  in  our  pride  of  enlightened  wisdom,  pause  for 
a  moment  to  reflect  on  this  most  anomalous  state  of 
things, — this  arrangement  of  political  aflairs  which 
systematically  excludes  at  least  one  half  of  the  great 
men  of  each  age  from  their  country's  service,  and  de-- 

10^ 


114  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

votes  both  classes  infinitely   more  to  maintaining   a 
conflict  with  one  another  than  to  furthering  the  gene- 
ral good.     And  here  it  may  be  admitted  at  once  that 
nothing  can  be  less  correct  than  their  view,  who  re- 
gard the  administration  of  affairs  as  practically  in  the 
hands  of  only  one-half  the  nation,  whilst  the  excluded 
portion  is  solely  occupied  in  thwarting  their  proceedings. 
The  influence  of  both  Parties  is  exerted,  and  the  move- 
ment of  the  state  machine  partakes  of  both  the  forces 
impressed  upon  it;  neither  taking  the  direction  of  the 
one    nor  the    other,  but    a    third    hne    between   both. 
This  concession,  no  doubt,  greatly  lessens  the  evil;  but 
it  is  very  far  indeed  from  removing  it.      Why  must 
there  always  be  this  conclusion,  and  this  conflict  1  Does 
not  every  one  immediately  perceive  how  it  must  prove 
detrimental  to  the  public  service  in  the  great  majority 
of  instances ;  and  how  miserable  a  make-shift  for  some- 
thing better  and  more  rational  it  is,  even  where  it  does 
more  good  than  harm?     Besides,  if  it  requires  a  con- 
stant and  systematic  opposition  to  prevent  mischief,  and 
keep  the  machine  of  state  in  the  right  path,  of  what  use 
is  our  boasted  representative  government,  which  is  de- 
signed to  give  the  people  the  control  over  their  rulers, 
and  serves  no  other  purposes  at  all?  Let  us  for  a  moment 
consider  the  origin  of  this  system  of  Party^that  we  may 
the  better  be  able  to  appreciate  its  value  and  to  com- 
prehend its  manner  of  working. 

The  Origin  of  Party  may  be  traced  by  fond  theorists 
and  sanguine  votaries  of  the  system,  to  a  radical  differ- 
ence of  the  opinion  and  principle ;  to  the  "  idem  sen- 
tire  de  repuhlicd"  which  has  at  all  times  marshalled 
men  in  combination  or  split  them  in  oppositions;  but  it 
is  pretty  plain  to  any  person  of  ordinary  understanding, 
that  a  far  less  romantic  ground  of  union  and  of  separation 
has  for  the  most  part  existed — the  individual  interests  of 
the  parties;  the  idem  velle  atque  idem  nolle;  the  desire 
Q.f  power  and  of  plunder,  which,  as  all  cannot  share,  each. 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  115 

is  desirous  of  snatching  and  holding.  The  history  of 
English  party  is  as  certainly  that  of  a  few  great  men  and 
powerful  families  on  the  one  hand,  contending  for  place 
and  power,  with  a  few  others  on  the  opposite  quarter, 
as  it  is  the  history  of  the  Plantagenets,  the  Tudors  and 
the  Stuarts.  There  is  nothing  more  untrue  than  to  repre- 
sent principle  as  at  the  bottom  of  it;  interest  is  at  the 
bottom,  and  the  opposition  of  principle  is  subservient  to 
the  opposition  of  interest.  Accordingly,  the  result  has 
been,  that  unless  perhaps  where  a  dynasty  was  changed, 
as  in  1688,  and  for  some  times  afterwards,  and  excepting 
on  questions  connected  with  this  change,  the  very  same 
conduct  was  held  and  the  same  principles  professed  by 
both  Parlies  when  in  office  and  by  both  when  in  opposi- 
tion. Of  this  we  have  seen  sufficiently  remarkable  in- 
stances in  the  course  of  the  foregoing  pages.  The 
Whig  in  opposition  was  for  retrenchmenttmd  for  peace; 
transplant  him  into  office,  he  cared  little  for  either. 
Bills  of  coercion,  suspensions  of  the^  constitution,  were 
his  abhorrence  when  propounded  byTories;  in  place,  he 
propounded  them  himself.  Acts  of  indemnity  and  of 
attainder  were  the  favourites  of  the  Tory  in  power;  the 
Tory  in  opposition  was  the  enemy  of  both.  The  gravest 
charge  ever  brought  by  the  Whig  against  his  adversary, 
was  the  personal  proscription  of  an  exalted  individual  to 
please  a  King;  tlie  worsi  charge  that  the  Tory  can  level 
against  the  Whig,  is  the  support  of  a  proscription,  still 
less  justifiable,  to  please  a  Viceroy. 

It  cannot  surely  in  these  circumstances  be  deemed 
extraordinary  that  plain  men,  uninitiated  in  the  Aristo- 
cratic Mysteries  whereof  a  rigid  devotion  to  Party  forms 
one  of  the  most  sacred,  should  be  apt  to  see  a  very  dif- 
ferent connexion  between  principle  and  faction  from 
the  one  usually  put  forward;  and  that  without  at  all 
denying  a  relation  between  (he  two  things,  they  should 
reverse  the  account  generally  given  by  Party  men,  and 
suspect  them  of  taking  up  principles  in  order  to  marshal 


116  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

themselves  in  alliances  and  hostilities  for  their  own 
interests,  instead  of  engaging  in  those  contests  because 
of  their  conflicting  principles.  In  a  word,  there  seems 
some  reason  to  suppose  that  interest  having  really 
divided  them  into  bands,  principles  are  professed  for  the 
purpose  of  better  compassing  their  objects  by  maintain- 
ing a  character  and  gaining  the  support  of  the  people. 

That  to  a  certain  degree  this  is  true,  we  think  can 
hardly  be  doubted,  although  it  is  also  impossible  to  deny 
that  there  is  a  plain  line  of  distinction  between  the  two 
great  Parties  which  formerly  prevailed  in  this  country 
upon  one  important  point,  the  foundations  and  extent  of 
the  Royal  Prerogative.  But  that  this  line  can  now  be 
traced  it  would  be  absurd  to  pretend.  Mr.  Pitt  and  even 
Lord  North  had  no  other  opinions  respecting  kingly  pow- 
er than  Mr.  Fox  or  i3urke;  and  the  rival  theories  of 
Sir  Robert  Filmer  and  Mr.  Locke  were  as  absolete 
during  the  American  war  as  they  are  at  this  day.  Then 
have  not  men,  since  Jacobitism  and  Divine  Riuht  were 
exploded,  generally  adopted  opinions  upon  the  practical 
questions  of  tlie  day  in  such  a  manner  as  to  let  them 
conveniently  co-operate  with  certain  acts  of  statesmen 
and  oppose  others;  join  some  family  interests  together  in 
order  to  counterbalance  some  other  family  interests; 
league  themselves  in  bodies  to  keep  or  to  get  power  in 
opposition  to  other  bands  formed  with  a  similar  view? 
This  surely  will  not,^  upon  a  calm  review  of  the  facts, 
be  denied  by  any  whose  judgment  is  worth  having. 

Observe  how  plainly  the  course  pursued  by  one  class 
dictates  that  to  be  taken  by  the  other.  There  must  be 
combinations,  and  there  must  be  oppositions;  and  there- 
fore things  to  differ  upon,  as  well  as  things  to  agree  upon 
must  needs  be  found.  Thus,  the  King  is  as  hostile  as- 
bigotry  and  tyranny  can  make  him  to  American  liberty, 
and  his  ministers  support  him  in  the  war  to  crush  it. 
This  throws  the  opposition  upon  the  liberal  side  of  the 
question  without  which  they  can  neither  keep  together 


EFFECTS  OF  PAUTV.  117 

nor  continue  to  resist  the  ministry.  Is  any  man  so  blind 
as  seriously  to  believe  that,  had  Mr.  Burke  and  Mr.  Fox 
been  the  Ministers  of  George  III.  they  would  have  re- 
signed rather  than  try  to  put  down  the  Americans?  If 
so,  let  him  open  his  eyes,  and  ask  himself  another  simple 
question.  What  Minister  would  ever  volunteer  his  advice 
to  dismember  the  empire?  But  if  that  fails  to  convince 
him,  let  him  recollect  that  the  American  war  had  raged 
for  years  before  the  word  "  Separation  "  crossed  the  lips  of 
any  man  in  either  House  of  Parliament — all  the  attacks 
were  made  upon  the  ill-treatment  of  our  fellow-subjects, 
and  the  mismanagement  of  the  war;  the  Whigs  would 
have  been  more  kind  rulers,  and  better  generals,  but  only 
in  order  to  prevent  the  last  of  calamities — Separation 
and  Independence.  Nay,  the  same  Party  being  now  in 
power,  have  avowed  towards  Canada  the  very  principles 
upon  which  Lord  North  carried  on  the  former  contest. 
The  Tories  may  perhaps  allege  that  they  have  of  late 
been  more  consistent. 

Take  another  instance.  While  the  Whigs  were  out 
of  office  the  same  King's  bigotry  refused  to  emancipate 
the  Roman  Catholics.  It  would  be  a  strong  thing  to 
hold,  that  the  party  which  was  always  distinguished  for 
its  hatred  of  Romanism,  and  which  had  founded  its  power 
of  old  on  the  penal  laws,  must  of  necessity  have  taken  an 
opposite  view  of  this  question  because  circumstances  had 
changed  and  those  laws  had  become  unnecessary,  and  be- 
cause the  King,  supposing  them  to  have  been  his  servants, 
v/ould  have  adhered  to  the  ancient  Whig  tenets.  But 
when,  in  opposition  themselves,  they  found  some  mil- 
lions ready  to  rally  against  the  Court,  and  saw  their 
adversaries  the  ministers  of  the  day,  siding  with  the 
King,  they  never  hesitated  a  moment  in  taking  their 
line,  and  fought  gallantly  till  the  battle  was  won.  With- 
out affirming  that  the  altered  view  of  the  question  was 
wholly  caused  by  the  position  of  Parties,  and  dictated 
by  the  Ministers  taking  the  other  line,  we  may  at  least 


118  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

assert,  without  any  fear  of  contradiction,  that  the  prompti- 
tude with  which  the  change  was  made  by  the  leaders  is 
traceable  to  this  source;  and  that  their  having  power  to 
make  their  less  liberal  and  enlightened  followers  in  the 
country  join  them,  doing  violence  to  their  most  rooted 
prejudices,  can  in  no  other  way  be  accounted  for  than 
by  referring  to  the  operation  of  Party  tactics.  Indeed, 
this  operation  alone  can  explain  the  phenomenon  of  the 
two  great  factions  having  changed  sides  on  the  whole 
question;  the  Tories  taking  the  very  part  now  which  the 
Whigs  did  in  the  days  of  the  Somers,  the  Marlboroughs, 
the  Godolphins,  and  somewhat  earlier  in  the  times  of 
the  Russells  and  the  Sidneys.  The  solution  of  the  enig- 
ma is  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  accidental  circumstance 
of  the  Parties  having  at  the  two  different  periods  been  in 
opposite  positions — the  Whigs  in  power  at  one  time,  the 
Tories  at  the  other,  and  the  Crown  holding  the  same 
course  in  each  case.  The  only  other  circumstance  that 
exists  to  modify  this  conclusion,  is,  that  the  principles  of 
the  Whig  families  at  the  Revolution  led  to  their  being  in 
power;  although  it  would  be  a  bold  thing  to  assert  that, 
if  the  Tory  families  had  been  preferred,  through  some 
accident  of  personal  favour,  by  William  and  Anne,  the 
Whig  families  then  in  opposition  would  have  supported 
the  penal  code;  or  even  that,  if  George  I.  had  turned  his 
back  upon  them,  and  courted  their  adversaries,  they 
would  have  kept  quite  clear  of  Jacobite  connexions, 
which  some  of  the  most  distinguished,  as  it  was,  are 
well  known  to  have  formed. 

Nor  is  there  much  reason  to  suppose  that  had  the 
Parties  changed  positions  in  1/92  the  Whigs  would,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  have  been  against  the  war.  Half  the 
Party  were  found  to  be  the  most  strenuous  advocates 
of  a  rupture  with  France,  and  their  accession  to  office  as 
a  body  followed  this  avowal.  The  whole  could  not  pur- 
sue the  same  course;  and  Mr.  Pitt  having  unhappily 
declared  for  war,  the  opposition  was  for  peace.     If  any 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  119 

one  feels  very  confident  that  the  great  men  whom  we 
have  been  contemplating  in  their  glorious  resistance  to 
that  ruinous  contest,  would  have  maintained  peace  at  all 
hazards,  including  a  quarrel  with  the  Aristocracy  and 
the  Court,  had  they  been  George  Ill's.  Ministers,  we 
beseech  him  to  consider  how  little  disposed  they  showed 
themselves,  after  Mr.  Pitt's  death,  to  make  sacrifices  for 
the  great  object  of  pacification,  and  how  forward  they 
were  in  gratifying  the  King's  prejudices  on  Hanover, 
which  their  new  leader  declared  was  as  much  a  British 
interest  as  Hampshire.  One  thing  is  certain  enough, — 
had  the  Whigs  joined  the  King  and  the  Aristocracy  in 
making  war,  Mr.  Pitt  would  have  been  as  strenuous  an 
apostle  of  Peace  as  ever  preached  that  holy  word. 

If  the  new  line  of  distinction  which  now  severs  the 
two  sets  of  men  be  observed,  little  doubt  will  be  east 
upon  our  former  conclusions.  The  one  is  for  reform^  the 
other  against  it.  But  the  old  Whig  Party  were  always 
very  lukewarm  reformers:  one  section  of  them  were  its 
most  bitter  enemies — the  rest,  with  few  exceptions,  its 
very  temperate  supporters.  Even  Mr.  Fox's  reform  of 
Parliament  would  have  gone  into  a  mighty  narrov/  com- 
pass. But  there  rests  no  kind  of  doubt  on  this  as  well 
as  other  principles  having  been  rather  the  consequence 
than  the  cause  of  Party  distinctions;  for  when  Mr.  Pitt 
in  opposition,  and  afterwards  in  office,  brought  forward 
the  question,  he  received  a  very  moderate  and  divided 
support  from  the  Whigs;  and  no  small  part  of  the 
Government  which  carried  the  question  in  1831,  and  of 
the  present  Reform  Government,  are  Tories  who  had 
before  been  strenuously  opposed  to  all  changes  what- 
ever in  our  parliamentary  system.  That  the  same  Mi- 
nistry of  1831  was  substantially  Whig,  and  carried  the 
question  by  a  far  greater  effort  than  ever  Mr.  Pitt  made 
for  its  advancement,  is  not  to  be  doubted.  But  their 
influence,  nay  their  existence  depended  upon  it:  they 
gained  more  by  it,  as  a  Party,  than  by  any  other  course 


120  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

they  could  have  gained.  This  then  can  form  no  ex- 
ception whatever  to  the  position  that  where  parties  are 
formed  mainly  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  and  retain- 
ing power,  they  adopt  principles  and  act  upon  them, 
with  a  view  to  serve  this  main  object  of  the  Party  union. 
The  people  in  a  country  like  this  have  their  weight  as 
well  as  the  Court  and  the  Aristocracy,  and  their  opinions, 
and  feelings  must  be  consulted  by  Party  leaders  in  order 
to  gain  their  support.  Whatever  insincerity  there  may 
be  in  the  latter,  however  they  may  be  suspected  of  pro- 
fessing opinions  for  the  purpose  of  their  policy,  the  peo- 
ple can  have  no  such  sinister  motives.  Hence  a  Party 
may  take  popular  ground  when  in  opposition  with  the 
view  of  defeating  the  Court,  and  it  may  also  take  the 
same  ground  in  office  to  fortify  itself  against  a  hostile 
Court  or  a  generally  unfriendly  Aristocracy. 

This  induction  of  facts  is  incomplete,  if  the  inslantia 
negaiiva,  the  converse  proof,  be  wanting,  of  cases  where 
great  principles  not  espoused  by  Parties,  nor  made 
matter  of  Party  manoeuvring,  have  had  a  different 
fate.  Unhappily  there  are  comparatively  very  few 
questions  of  importance  which  have  enjoyed  this  ex- 
emption. One  of  the  greatest  of  all,  however,  the  Slave 
Trade  is  of  the  number;  the  Abolition  having  been 
first  taken  up  by  Thomas  Clarkson,  a  Foxite  in  opinion, 
and  in  Parliament  by  Mr.  Wilberforce,  a  friend  of  Mr. 
Pitt  (but  neither  of  them  Party  men,)  was  never  made 
the  subject  of  Party  distinction.  Accordingly,  the  men 
of  both  sides  were  divided  on  it,  according  to  the  colours 
of  their  real  opinions  and  not  of  their  Party  differences: 
nor  was  it  ever  either  supported  or  opposed  by  the 
marshalled  strength  of  faction.  The  doctrines  of  Free 
Trade  and  the  amendment  of  the  Criminal  Law  furnish 
other  instances  of  the  same  rare  description.  No  one 
can  be  at  any  loss  to  perceive  how  very  differently  these 
questions  have  been  handled  from  the  Party  ones  to 
which  we  before  adverted.     No  one  can  be  at  a  loss  to 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  121 

perceive  how  much  truth  has  gained  by  the  remarkable 
diversity. 

We  have  hitherto  been  referring  to  the  fate  of  great 
principles, — of  general  questions;  but  the  same  will 
be  found  to  have  been  the  treatment  of  subjects  more 
personal  and  accidental.  Mr.  Pitt,  after  a  short  co- 
operation with  the  Whigs,  sacrificed  them  to  the  pre- 
judices of  the  King  and  returned  to  power,  while  they 
retired  to  their  opposition  places  and  habits.  If,  instead 
of  this  result,  the  negotiations  of  1804  had  led  to  a 
junction  of  the  two  great  Parlies,  he  is  a  bold  man  who 
will  take  upon  himself  to  alfirm  that  the  Whigs  would 
on  the  Treasury  Bench  have  read  Lord  St.  Vincent's 
famous  10th  Report  with  the  same  eyes  which  glared 
upon  Lord  Melville  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  House, 
and  conducted  them  to  the  impeachment  of  that  Minis- 
ter a  few  months  afterwards.  Again,  the  greatest  per- 
sonal question  that  ever  distracted  rather  than  divided 
the  country,  was  the  treatment  of  the  Queen  in  1820. 
Had  the  VVhigs  then  been  in  office  under  George  IV., 
as  they  were  in  habits  of  Party  connexion  with  him  in 
1806,  would  they  have  been  so  strenuous  in  opposing 
his  favourite  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties?  It  would 
be  a  very  adventurous  thing  to  assert  any  thing  of  the 
kind,  when  we  recollect  how  unreservedly  they  lent 
themselves  in  1806  to  the  first  persecution  of  the  ill-fated 
Queen  by  the  "  Delicate  Investigation,"  as  it  was  most 
inappropriately  called,  which  they  conducted  in  secret 
and  behind  the  back  of  the  accused.  The  Tories  were 
then  in  opposition  to  the  Prince  and  to  the  Whig  minis- 
try; and  they  bitterly  denounced  that  secret  proceeding. 
Who  can  doubt  that  had  the  Whigs  in  1820  been  the 
ministers  and  proposed  the  Bill,  it  would  have  found 
as  strenuous  opposition  from  the  Tories  as  this  Bill 
found  from  the  Whigs'?  But  are  we  left  to  our  con- 
jectures upon  this  point?  No  such  matter.  The  Tories 
are  now  in  opposition;  the  Whigs  in  office;  and  a  bill 

VOL.  ir.  11 


122  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

of  attainder  has  been  defended  by  theWhigs  and  opposed 
by  the  Tories,  having  for  its  avowed  object  to  banish 
men  from  their  country  without  a  trial,  or  a  hearing,  or 
even  a  notice;  and  accomplishing  this  object  by  de- 
claring their  entrance  within  their  native  land  a  capital 
offence.  Had  the  Whigs  in  power  brought  forward  a 
bill  to  exile  the  Queen  without  hearing  her,  and  to  de- 
clare her  landing  in  England  high  treason,  we  have  a 
right  to  affirm  that  the  Tories  being  in  opposition  would 
have  strenuously  resisted  such  a  measure.  Two  cases 
more  parallel  can  hardly  be  imagined;  for  there  was  a 
charge  of  treason  in  both;  there  was  the  temporary 
absence  of  the  party  accused ;  there  was  a  riot  or  tu- 
mult expected  upon  that  party's  return;  there  was  the 
wish  to  prevent  such  a  return;  and  there  was  no  desire 
in  either  the  one  case  or  the  other  to  shed  a  drop  of 
blood,  but  only  a  wish  to  gain  the  object  by  a  threat. 
On  the  other  hand,  have  the  Tories  any  right  to  affirm 
that  if  they  had  chanced  to  be  in  power  when  the  Ca- 
nada affiiirs  were  to  be  settled,  no  bills  of  attainder 
would  have  been  passed?  The  forms  of  law  might 
have  been  more  artificially  and  skilfully  preserved;  but 
that  the  principles  of  substantial  justice  would  have  been 
better  maintained  towards  Papineau,  and  his  adherents 
in  1838  than  they  were  towards  Queen  Caroline  in  1820, 
we  have  no  ricrht  whatever  to  believe.  The  Bill  of  1820 
is  the  great  blot  upon  their  public  character,  the  worst 
passage  by  far  in  the  history  of  their  Party;  and  they 
must  have  felt  while  they  assented  to  its  iniquities  and 
plunged  the  country  into  the  most  imminent  dangers, 
that  they  were  yielding  to  the  vilest  caprices  of  an  un- 
principled and  tyrannical  master. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  those  who  concur  in  these 
general  remarks  upon  party  are  pronouncing  a  very 
severe  censure  upon  all  public  men  in  this  country,  or 
placing  themselves  vainly  on  an  eminence  removed 
from  strife,  and  high  above  all  vulgar  contentions — 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  123 

Despicere  unde  queas  alios,  passimque  videre, 
Errare,  atque  viam  palanteis  quaerere  vilx, 
Certare  ingenio,  contendere  nobilitate, 
Nocteis  atque  dies  niti  praestante  labore 
Ad  summas  emergere  opes,  rerumque  potiri. 

LUCHET.  II. 

The  blame  now  cast  upon  politicians  affects  them  all 
equally ;  and  is  only  like  that  which  ethical  reasoners  on 
the  selfish  theory  of  morals  may  be  supposed  to  throw 
upon  all  human  conduct.  In  fact,  that  blame  applies 
not  to  individuals,  but  to  the  system ;  and  that  system 
is  proved  to  be  bad ; — hurtful  to  the  interests  of  the 
country,  corrupting  to  the  people,  injurious  to  honest 
principle,  and  at  the  very  best  a  clumsy  contrivance 
for  carrvins  on  the  affairs  of  the  State. 

It  is  partly  the  result  of  our  monarchical  constitution, 
in  which  the  prince  must  rule  by  influence  rather  than 
prerogative;  but  it  is  much  more  to  be  derived  from  the 
aristocratical  portion  of  the  constitution.  The  great 
families  in  their  struggles  with  each  other  and  against 
the  Crown,  have  recourse  to  Party  leagues,  and  the 
people  are  from  time  to  time  drawn  into  the  conflict. 
The  evils  which  flow  from  this  manner  of  conducting 
public  affairs  are  manifest.  The  two  greatest  unques- 
tionably are,  first,  the  loss  of  so  many  able  men  to  the 
service  of  the  country  as  well  as  the  devotion  of  almost 
the  whole  powers  of  all  leading  men  to  party  contests 
and  the  devotion  of  a  portion  of  those  men  to  obstruct- 
ing the  public  service  instead  of  helping  it;  and  next, 
the  sport  which  in  playing  the  party  game,  is  made  of 
the  most  sacred  principles,  the  duping  of  the  people,  and 
the  assumption  of  their  aristocratic  -leaders  to  dictate 
their  opinions  to  them.  It  is  a  sorry  account  of  any  po- 
litical machine  that  it  is  so  constructed,  as  only  to  be 
kept  in  order  by  the  loss  of  power  and  the  conflict  of 
forces  which  the  first  of  these  faults  implies.  It  is  a 
clumsy  and  unwieldy  movement  which  can  only  be  ef- 


124  EFFECTS  OF  PARTY. 

fected  by  the  combined  operation  of  jarring  principles, 
which  the  panegyrists  or  rather  apologists  of  these  ano- 
malies have  comn>ended.  But  it  is  a  radical  vice  in 
any  system  to  exclude  the  people  from  forming  their 
own  opinions,  which  must,  if  proceeding  from  their  own 
impulses,  be  kept  in  strict  accordance  with  their  inte- 
rests, that  is,  with  the  general  good ;  and  it  is  a  flaw  if 
possible  still  more  disastrous,  to  render  the  people  only 
tools  and  instruments  of  an  oligarchy,  instead  of  making 
their  power  the  main-spring  of  the  whole  engine,  and 
their  interest  the  grand  object  of  all  its  operations. 

Of  this  we  may  be  well  assured,  that  as  Party  has 
hitherto  been  known  amongst  us,  it  can  only  be  borne 
during  the  earlier  stages  of  a  nation's  political  growth. 
While  the  people  are  ignorant  of  their  interests,  and  as 
little  acquainted  with  their  rights  as  with  their  duties, 
they  may  be  treated  by  the  leading  factions  as  they  have 
hitherto  been  treated  by  our  own.  God  be  praised,  they 
are  not  now  what  they  were  in  the  palmy  days  of  factious 
aristocracy,  of  the  Walpoles,  and  the  Foxes,  and  the 
Pelhams — never  consulted,  and  never  thought  of  unless 
when  it  was  desirable  that  one  mob  should  bawl  out 
•"  Church  and  King,'  and  another  should  echo  back  *  No 
Pope,  and  no  Pretender.'  They  have  even  made  great 
advances  since  the  close  of  the  American  war,  and  the 
earlier  periods  of  the  French  Revolution,  when,  through 
fear  of  the  Catholics,  the  library  of  Lord  Mansfield,  and 
through  hatred  of  the  Dissenters,  the  apparatus  of  Dr. 
Priestley,  were  committed  to  the  flames.  Their  progress 
is  now  rapid, and  their  success  assured  in  the  attainment 
of  all  that  can  qualify  them  for  self-government,  eman- 
cipate them  from  pupilage,  and  entitle  them  to  under- 
take the  management  of  their  own  affairs.  Nor  will 
they  any  more  suffer  leading  men  to  make  up  their  opi- 
nions for  them,  as  doctors  do  the  prescriptions  which 
they  are  to  take,  or  consent  to  be  the  tools  and  the 
dupes  of  party  any  more. 


EFFECTS  OF  PARTY.  125 

Let  us  now  by  way  of  contrast,  rather  than  compa- 
rison, turn  our  eye  towards  some  eminent  leaders  of 
mankind  in  countries  where  no  Party  spirit  can  ever  be 
shown,  or  in  circumstances  where  a  great  danger, 
threatening  all  alike,  excludes  the  influence  of  faction 
altogether,  though  only  for  a  season,  and  while  the 
pressure  continues. 

Contemporary  with  George  III.,  and  with  the  states- 
men whose  faint  likenesses  we  have  been  surveying, 
were  some  of  the  most  celebrated  persons  whom  either 
the  old  or  the  new  world  have  produced.  Their  talents 
and  their  fortunes  came  also  in  conflict  with  those  of 
our  own  rulers,  upon  some  of  the  most  memorable  oc- 
casions which  have  exercised  the  one  or  affected  the 
other.  It  will  form  no  inappropriate  appendix  to  the 
preceding  sketches,  if  we  now  endeavour  to  portray 
several  of  those  distinguished  individuals. 


11* 


FRANKLIN. 


FRANKLIN. 


0^E  of  the  most  remarkable  men,  certainly,  of  our 
times,  as  a  politician,  or  of  any  age,  as  a  philosopher, 
was  Franklin;  who  also  stands  alone  in  combining  to- 
gether these  two  characters,  the  greatest  that  man  can 
sustain,  and  in  this,  that  iiaving  borne  the  first  part  in 
enlarging  science,  by  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries 
ever  made,  he  bore  the  second  part  in  founding  one  of 
the  greatest  empires  in  the  world. 

In  this  truly  great  man  every  thing  seems  to  concur 
that  goes  towards  the  constitution  of  exalted  merit. 
First,  he  was  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune.  Born 
in  the  humblest  station,  he  raised  himself  by  his  talents 
and  his  industry,  first  to  the  place  in  society  which  may 
be  attained  witii  the  help  only  of  ordinary  abilities,  great 
application  and  good  luck ;  but  next  to  the  loftier  heights 
which  a  daring  and  happy  genius  alone  can  scale ;  and 
the  poor  Printer's  boy,  who,  at  one  period  of  his  life, 
had  no  covering  to  shelter  his  head  from  the  dews  of 
night,  rent  in  twain  the  proud  dominion  of  England, 
and  lived  to  be  the  Ambassador  of  a  Commonwealth 
which  he  had  formed,  at  the  Court  of  the  haughty  Mo- 
narchs  of  France  who  had  been  his  allies. 

Then,  he  had  been  tried  by  prosperity  as  well  as  ad- 
verse fortune,  and  had  passed  unhurt  through  the  perils 
of  both.  No  ordinary  apprentice,  no  common-place  jour- 
neyman, ever  laid  the  foundations  of  his  independence  in 
habits  of  industry  and  temperance  more  deep  than  he 
did,  whose  genius  was  afterwards  to  rank  him  with  the 
Galileos  and  the  Newtons  of  the  old  world.  No  patri- 
cian born  to  shine  in  Courts,  or  assist  at  the  Councils  of 
Monarchs,  ever  bore  his  honours  in  a  lofty  station  more 


130  FRANKLIN. 

easily,  or  was  less  spoilt  by  the  enjoyment  of  them  than 
this  common  workman  did  when  negotiating  with  Royal 
representatives,  or  caressed  by  all  the  beauty  and  fashion 
of  the  most  brilliant  Court  in  Europe. 

Again,  he  was  self-taught  in  all  he  knew.  His  hours 
of  study  were  stolen  from  those  of  sleep  and  of  meals, 
or  gained  by  some  ingenious  contrivance  for  reading 
while  the  work  of  his  daily  calling  went  on.  Assisted 
by  none  of  the  helps  which  affluence  tenders  to  the 
studies  of  the  rich,  he  had  to  supply  the  place  of  tutors, 
by  redoubled  diligence,  and  of  commentaries,  by  re- 
peated perusal.  Nay,  the  possession  of  books  was  to 
be  obtained  by  copying  what  the  art  which  he  himself 
exercised,  furnished  easily  to  others. 

Next,  the  circumstances  under  which  others  succumb 
he  made  to  yield,  and  bent  to  his  own  purposes — a 
successful  leader  of  a  revolt  that  ended  in  complete  tri- 
umph after  appearing  desperate  for  years;  a  great  dis- 
coverer in  philosophy  without  the  ordinary  helps  to 
knowledge ;  a  writer  famed  for  his  chaste  style  with- 
out a  classical  education;  a  skilful  negotiator,  though 
never  bred  to  politics;  ending  as  a  favourite,  nay,  a 
pattern  of  fashion,  when  the  guest  of  frivolous  Courts, 
the  life  which  he  had  begun  in  garrets  and  in  work- 
shops. 

Lastly,  combinations  of  faculties  in  others  deemed 
impossible,  appeared  easy  and  natural  in  him.  The 
philosopher,  delighted  in  speculation,  was  also  emi- 
nently a  man  of  action.  Ingenious  reasoning,  refined 
and  subtle  consultation,  were  in  him  combined  with 
prompt  resolution,  and  inflexible  firmness  of  purpose. 
To  a  lively  fancy,  he  joined  a  learned  and  deep  reflection; 
his  original  and  inventive  genius  stooped  to  the  conve- 
nient alliance  of  the  most  ordinary  prudence  in  every- 
day affairs;  the  mind  that  soared  above  the  clouds,  and 
was  conversant  with  the  loftiest  of  human  contempla- 
tions, disdained  not  to  make  proverbs  and  feign  para- 


FRANKLIN.  131 

bles  for  the  guidance  of  apprenticed  youths  and  servile 
maidens ;  and  the  hands  that  sketched  a  free  constitu- 
tion for  a  whole  continent,  or  drew  down  the  lightning 
from  heaven,  easily  and  cheerfully  lent  themselves  to 
simplify  the  apparatus  by  which  truths  were  to  be  il- 
lustrated, or  discoveries  pursued. 

His  whole  course  both  in  acting  and  in  speculation 
was  simple  and  plain,  ever  preferring  the  easiest  and  the 
shortest  road,  nor  ever  having  recourse  to  any  but  the 
simplest  means  to  compass  his  ends.  His  policy  rejected 
all  refinements,  and  aimed  at  accomplishing  its  purposes 
by  the  most  rational  and  obvious  expedients.  His  lan- 
guage was  unadorned,  and  used  as  the  medium  of  com- 
municating his  thoughts,  not  of  raising  admiration; 
but  it  was  pure,  expressive,  racy.  His  manner  of  rea- 
soning was  manly  and  cogent,  the  address  of  a  rational 
being  to  others  of  the  same  order;  and  so  concise,  that 
preferring  decision  to  discussion,  he  never  exceeded  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  in  any  public  address.  His  corre- 
spondence upon  business,  whether  private  or  on  state 
affairs,  is  a  model  of  clearness  and  compendious  short- 
ness; nor  can  any  state  papers  surpass  in  dignity  and 
impression,  those  of  which  he  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  author  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  American  revolu- 
tionary war.  His  mode  of  philosophising  was  the  pui-est 
application  of  the  Inductive  principle,  so  eminentiv  adapt- 
ed to  his  nature,  and  so  clearly  dictated  by  common 
sense,  that  we  can  have  little  doubt  it  would  have  been 
suggested  by  Franklin,  if  it  had  not  been  unfolded  by 
Bacon,  though  it  is  as  clear  that  in  this  case  it  would  have 
been  expounded  in  far  more  simple  terms.  But  of  all 
this  great  man's  scientific  excellencies,  the  most  remark- 
able is  the  smallness,  the  simplicity,  the  apparent  inade- 
quacy, of  the  means  which  he  employed  in  his  experi- 
mental researches.  His  discoveries  were  made  with 
hardly  any  apparatus  at  all;  and  if,  at  any  time,  he  had 
been  led  to  employ  instruments  of  a  somewhat  less  ordi- 


132  FRANKLIN. 

nary  description,  he  never  rested  satisfied  until  he  had, 
as  it  were,  afterwards  translated  the  process,  by  re- 
solving the  problem  with  such  simple  machinery,  that 
you  might  say  he  had  done  it  wholly  unaided  by  appa- 
ratus. The  experiments  by  which  the  identity  of  light- 
ning and  electricity  was  demonstrated,  were  made  with 
a  sheet  of  brown  paper,  a  bit  of  twine,  a  silk  thread, 
and  an  iron  key. 

Upon  the  integrity  of  this  great  man,  whether  in  pub- 
lic or  in  private  life,  there  rests  no  stain.  Strictly  ho- 
nest, and  even  scrupulously  punctual  in  all  his  dealings, 
he  preserved  in  the  highest  fortune  that  regularity 
which  he  had  practised  as  well  as  inculcated  in  the  low- 
est. The  phrase  which  he  once  used  when  interrupted 
in  his  proceedings  upon  the  most  arduous  and  important 
affairs,  by  a  demand  of  some  petty  item  in  a  long  account 
— "Thou  shall  not  muzzle  the  ox  that  treads  out  the 
corn," — has  been  cited  against  him  as  proving  the  laxity 
of  his  dealings  when  in  trust  of  public  money;  it  plainly 
proves  the  reverse;  for  he  well  knew  that  in  a  country 
abounding  in  discussion,  and  full  of  bitter  personal  ani- 
mosities, nothing  could  be  gained  of  immunity  by  re- 
fusing to  ])roduce  his  vouchers  at  the  fitting  time;  and 
his  venturing  to  use  such  language  demonstrates  that  he 
knew  his  conduct  to  be  really  above  all  suspicion. 

In  domestic  life  he  was  faultless,  and  in  the  intercourse 
of  society,  delightful.  There  was  a  constant  good  hu- 
mour and  a  playful  wit,  easy  and  of  high  relish,  with- 
out any  ambition  to  shine,  the  natural  fruit  of  his  lively 
fancy,  his  solid,  natural  good  sense,  and  his  cheerful 
temper,  that  gave  his  conversation  an  unspeakable 
charm,  and  alike  suited  every  circle,  from  the  humblest 
to  the  most  elevated.  With  all  his  strong  opinions,  so 
often  solemnly  declared,  so  imperishably  recorded  in  his 
deeds,  he  retained  a  tolerance  for  those  who  differed 
with  him  which  could  not  be  surpassed  in  men  whose 


FRANKLIN.  133 

principles  hang  so  loosely  about  them  as  to  be  taken  up 
for  a  convenient  cloak,  and  laid  down  when  found  to 
impede  their  progress.  In  his  family  he  was  every  thino- 
that  worth,  warm  aifections,  and  sound  prudence  could 
contribute,  to  make  a  man  both  useful  and  amiable,  re- 
spected and  beloved.  In  religion,  he  would  by  many 
be  reckoned  a  latitudinarian ;  yet  it  is  certain  that  his 
mind  was  imbued  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  Divine  per- 
fections, a  constant  impression  of  our  accountable  na- 
ture, and  a  lively  hope  of  future  enjoyment.  Accord- 
ingly, his  death- bed,  the  test  of  both  faith  and  works, 
was  easy  and  placid,  resigned  and  devout,  and  indicated 
at  once  an  unflinching  retrospect  of  the  past,  and  a 
comfortable  assurance  of  the  future. 


If  we  turn  from  the  truly  great  man  whom  we  have 
been  contemplating,  to  his  celebrated  contemporary  in 
the  Old  World,  who  only  affected  the  philosophy  that 
Franklin  possessed,  and  employed  his  talents  for  civil 
and  military  affairs,  in  extinguishing  that  independence 
which  Franklin's  life  was  consecrated  to  establish,  the 
contrast  is  marvellous  indeed,  between  the  Monarch 
and  the  Printer. 


VOL.  II.  12 


FREDERIC  IL 


FREDERIC  11. 


In  one  particular  this  celebrated  Prince  may  be  said 
to  resemble  the  great  Republican.  His  earlier  j^ears 
were  spent  in  the  school  of  adversity.  Whether  the 
influence  of  this  discipline,  usually  so  propitious  to  the 
character  of  great  men,  was  exerted  in  chasiening  his 
principles,  and  in  calling  forth  and  regulating  those 
feelings  which  the  education  of  a  court  tends  either  to 
stifle  or  pervert,  may  be  learnt  not  only  from  the  pri- 
vate history  of  his  reign,  but  from  some  anecdotes  pre- 
served, of  his  conduct  immediately  after  he  came  to 
the  crown;  while  as  yet,  his  heart  could  not  have  be- 
come callous  from  the  habits  of  uncontrolled  dominion, 
nor  his  principles  unsettled  by  the  cares  of  his  turbulent 
career.  When  William  discovered  his  son's  plan  for  es- 
caping from  Prussia,  he  caused  him  to  be  arrested,  toge- 
ther with  his  confidential  friend  De  Catt,  and  instantly 
brought  to  trial  before  a  military  commission.  The  in- 
terposition of  Austria  alone  saved  the  prince's  life;  but 
he  was  thrown  into  prison  at  the  fort  of  Custrin,  where 
his  friend  was  beheaded  on  a  scaffold  raised  before  his 
apartment  to  the  level  of  the  window,  from  which  he 
was  forced  to  view  this  afflicting  spectacle.  He  was  so 
much  overpowered,  that  he  sunk  senseless  into  the 
chair  which  had  been  placed  to  keep  him  at  the  window, 
and  only  recovered  to  bewail,  with  every  appearance  of 
the  most  poignant  feeling,  the  fate  of  this  unhappy- 
young  man,  who  had  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  his  faithful  at- 
tachment. The  savage  conduct  of  William,  indeedj^ 
left  him  scarcely  any  other  occupation;  his  confinement 
was  as  strict,  and  his  treatment  as  harsh  as  that  of  the 
meanest    felon.      By   degrees,    however,    his    guards 

12* 


138  FREDERIC  II. 

watched  him  less  closely,  and  he  was  even  permitted  to 
steal  out  under  cover  of  night,  by  circuitous  paths,  to  a 
chateau  in  the  neighbourhood,  the  residence  of  a  very 
amiable  nobleman's  family,  who  received  him  with  the 
greatest  kindness,  and  exposed  themselves  to  constant 
risk  on  his  account.  Among  them  he  spent  as  much 
of  his  time,  for  above  a  year,  as  he  could  gain  from  the 
humanity  or  treachery  of  his  jailer.  It  was  chiefly  with 
music  and  reading  that  he  consoled  himself  in  the  gloom 
of  his  prison;  and  those  good  folks  not  only  furnished 
him  with  books  and  candles,  but  made  little  concerts  for 
him  in  the  evenings,  when  he  could  escape  to  enjoy  their 
society.  The  young  Wrechs  (for  that  was  the  name  of 
this  family)  were  sufficiently  accomplished  and  sprightly 
to  gain  Frederic's  esteem.  He  delighted  much  in  their 
company;  and  though  they  were  so  numerous,  that  the 
baron  was  kept  in  narrow  circumstances  by  the  neces- 
sary expenses  of  their  maintenance  and  education,  he 
contrived,  by  straitening  himself  still  more,  to  scrape 
together  supplies  of  money  to  the  amount  of  above  six 
thousand  rix  dollars,  with  which  he  assisted,  from  time 
to  time,  his  royal  guest. 

Such  were  the  obligations  which  Frederic  owed,  dur- 
ing this  eventful  period  of  his  life,  first  to  the  House  of 
Austria,  whose  spirited  and  decisive  interference  saved 
him  from  the  scaffold;  next,  to  the  unfortunate  De  Catt, 
who  had  sacrificed  his  life  in  the  attempt  to  aid  his  es- 
cape; and,  lastly,  to  the  amiable  family  of  the  Wrechs, 
who,  at  the  imminent  risk  of  their  lives,  and  at  a  certain 
expense  little  suited  to  their  moderate  circumstances,  had 
tenderly  alleviated  the  hardships  of  his  confinement.  As 
Frederic  mounted  the  throne  a  short  time  after  he  was 
set  at  liberty,  we  might  naturally  expect  that  the  im- 
pression of  favours  like  these  would  outlive  the  ordinary 
period  of  royal  memory.  The  first  act  of  his  reign  was 
to  invade  the  hereditary  dominions  of  Austria,  and  re- 
duce to  the  utmost  distress  the  daughter  and  represen- 


FREDERIC  II,  139 

tative  of  the  monarch  whose  timely  interposition  had 
saved  his  Hfe,  by  heading  a  powerful  combination  against 
her,  after  stripping  her  of  an  invaluable  province. 
The  family  and  relations  of  De  Catt  never  received, 
during  the  whole  of  his  reign,  even  a  smile  of  royal  fa- 
vour. To  the  Wrechs  he  not  only  never  repaid  a  creut- 
zer  of  the  money  which  they  had  pinched  themselves  to 
raise  for  his  accommodation,  but  manifested  a  degree  of 
coldness  amounting  to  displeasure:  so  that  this  worthy 
and  accomplished  family  were  in  a  kind  of  disgrace  dur- 
ing his  time,  never  received  well  at  court,  nor  promoted 
to  any  of  the  employments  which  form  in  some  sort  the 
patrimony  of  the  aristocracy.  They  were  favoured  by 
Prince  Henry;  and  all  that  they  could  boast  of  owing 
to  the  king  was,  to  use  the  expression  of  his  most  zealous 
panegyrist,  that  '^he  did  not  persecute  them  "  on  account 
of  his  brother's  patronage.  His  defenders  screened  this 
ungrateful  conduct  behind  the  Prussian  law,  which  pro- 
hibits the  loan  of  money  to  princes  of  the  blood,  and  de- 
clares all  debts  contracted  by  them  null.  But  since  the 
Arirtg'was  to  govern  himself  by  the  enactments  of  this  law, 
it  would  have  been  well  if  the  Prince,  too,  had  considered 
them.  We  have  heard  of  Lewis  XII.  proudly  declaring 
that  it  was  unworthy  the  King  of  France  to  revenge 
the  wrongs  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  It  was  reserved 
for  the  unfeeling  meanness  of  Frederic  to  show  us, 
that  the  King  was  not  bound  by  the  highest  obligations 
of  the  Prince  of  Prussia — that  he  could  shelter  himself 
from  the  claims  of  honour  and  gratitude,  by  appealing 
to  laws  which  had  been  generously  violated  in  his  be- 
half. 

But  it  may  be  fair  to  mention  the  solitary  instance  of 
a  contrary  description,  which  we  can  find  in  comparing 
his  conduct  on  the  throne  with  the  favours  received 
during  his  misfortunes.  He  had  been  assisted  in  his 
musical  relaxations  at  Potsdam  by  the  daughter  of  a 
citizen,  who,  without  any  personal  charms,  had  theac- 


140  FREDERIC  II. 

complishment  most  valuable  to  the  Prince,  secluded  as 
he  was  from  all  society,  and  depending  for  amusement 
almost  entirely  on  his  flute.  His  father  no  sooner  heard 
of  this  intimacy,  than  he  supposed  there  must  be  some 
criminal  intercourse  between  the  young  amateurs,  and 
proceeded  to  meet  the  tender  passion  by  the  universal 
remedy  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  administering  to 
his  subjects.  The  lady  was  seized,  delivered  over  to 
the  executioner,  and  publicly  whipped  through  the 
streets  of  -Potsdam,  The  cruel  disgrace,  of  course,  put 
an  end  to  the  concerts,  and  to  her  estimation  in  society. 
When  Frederic  came  to  the  throne,  she  was  reduced  to 
the  humble  station  of  a  hackney-coachman's  wife;  and 
with  a  rare  effort  of  gratitude  and  generosity,  he  was 
pleased  to  settle  upon  her  a  pension,  of  very  little  less 
than  thirty-five  pounds  a-year. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  his  after  life 
that  shows  any  improvement  in  the  feelings  with  which 
he  began  it,  and  which  his  own  sufferings  had  not  chas- 
tened, nor  the  kindness  that  relieved  them,  softened.  In 
one  of  his  battles,  happening  to  turn  his  head  round, 
he  saw  his  nephew,  the  Hereditary  Prince,  fall  to  the 
ground,  his  horse  being  killed  under  him.  Frederic, 
thinking  the  rider  was  shot,  cried,  without  stopping  as 
he  rode  past,  "Ah!  there's  the  Prince  of  Prussia  killed; 
let  his  saddle  and  bridle  be  taken  care  of!" 

William  Augustus,  the  King's  elder  brother,  and 
heir  apparent  to  the  crown,  had  for  many  years  been 
his  principal  favourite.  He  was  a  prince  of  great  abi- 
lities, and  singularly  amiable  character — modest  almost 
to  timidity — and  repaying  the  friendship  of  Frederic  by 
a  more  than  filial  devotion.  He  had  served  near  his 
person  in  all  his  campaigns,  had  constantly  distinguished 
himself  in  war,  and  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Collin, 
was  entrusted  with  the  command  of  half  the  retreating 
army.  While  the  King  succeeded  in  bringing  off  his 
own  division  safe  into  Saxony,  the  Prince,  attacked  on 


FREDERIC  II.  141 

all  hands  by  the  whole  force  of  the  Austriaris,  suffered 
several  inconsiderable  losses  on  his  march,  and  gained 
the  neighbourhood   of  Dresden  with   some  difficulty. 
He  was  received,  as  well  as  his  whole  staff,  with  the 
greatest  marks  of  displeasure.     For  several  days  the 
King  spoke  to  none  of  them;  and  then  sent  a  message 
by  one  of  his  generals — "  Que  pour  bienfaire,  il  devoit 
leur  faire  tranche?'  la  tete,  excepier  au  general  Winter- 
feldt."     The  Prince  was  of  too   feeling  a  disposition 
not  to  suffer  extremely  from  this  treatment.     He  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  King,  in  which  he  stated  that  the 
fatigues  of  the  campaign,  and  his  distress  of  mind,  had 
totally  injured  his  health;  and  received  for  answer  a 
permission  to  retire,  couched  in  the   most  bitter  and 
humiliating  reproaches.     From  this  time  he  lived  en- 
tirely in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  a  prey  to  the  deepest 
melancholy,  b-ut  retaining  for  the  King  his  sentiments 
of  warm  attachment  and  respect  bordering  upon  vene- 
ration, although  never  permitted  to  approach  his  person. 
One  interview  only  brought  the  brothers  together  after 
their  unhappy  separation.     The  different  members  of 
the  Royal  family,  during  the  most  disastrous  period  of 
the  Seven  years'  war,  when  the  existence  of  the  house 
of  Brandenburg  seemed  to  depend  on  a  diminution  in 
the  number  of  its  enemies,  united  their  voice  in  exhort- 
ing the  King  to  attempt  making   such  a  peace  with 
France  and  Sweden  as  might  be  consistent  with  the 
honour  of  his  crown.     Prince  William  was  entreated  to 
lay  their  wishes  before  him;  and,  oppressed  as  he  was 
with  disease,  trembling  to  appear  in  his  brother's  pre- 
sence, scarcely  daring  to  hope  even  a  decorous  recep- 
tion, he  yet  thought  his  duty  required  this  effort,  and  he 
supplicated  an  audience.  Frederic  allowed  him  to  detail 
fully  his  whole  views,  and  was  willing  to  hear  from  him 
the  unanimous  prayers  of  his  relations.  He  appeared  be- 
fore the  King;  besought  him,  conjured  him,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  and  embraced  his  knees  with  all  the  warmth 


142  FREDERIC  II. 

of  fraternal  affection,  and  all  the  devotion  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  loyalty.  No  sentiment  of  pity  for  the  cause 
he  pleaded,  nor  any  spark  of  his  own  ancient  affection 
was  kindled  in  Frederic's  bosom  at  so  touching  a  scene. 
He  remained  silent  and  stern  during  the  whole  inter- 
view, and  then  put  an  end  to  it  by  these  words:  "Mon- 
sieur, vous  partirez  demain  pour  Berlin  :  allez  faire  des 
enfans :  vous  n'eles  hon  qu'a  cela^  The  Prince  did  not 
long  survive  this  memorable  audience. 

Such  was  the  fate  of  his  favourite  brother.  The 
Princess  Amelia  was  his  youngest  and  most  beloved 
sister.  She  was  one  of  the  most  charming  and  accom- 
plished women  in  Europe.  But  after  being  cajoled  by 
her  elder  sister,  Ulrica,  out  of  a  Royal  marriage,  which 
that  intriguer  obtained  for  herself,  Amelia  fell  in  love 
with  the  well-known  Baron  Trenck,  who  was  by  her 
brother  shut  up  in  a  fortress  for  ten  years;  and  Fre- 
deric daily  saw  pining  away  before  his  eyes  his  favour- 
ite sister,  become  blind  and  paralyzed  with  mental  suf- 
fering, and  saw  it  without  a  pang  or  a  sigh,  much  more 
without  a  thought  of  relieving  it  by  ceasing  to  persecute 
her  friend. 

Having  contemplated  this  monarch  in  the  relations  of 
domestic  life,  it  is  now  fit  that  we  should  view  him 
among  his  friends.  Of  these,  there  was  absolutely  not 
one  whom  he  did  not  treat  with  exemplary  harshness, 
except  Jordan,  who  indeed  lived  only  a  few  years  after 
Frederic  came  to  the  throne,  while  he  was  too  much 
occupied  with  war  to  allow  him  time  for  mixing  with 
that  select  society,  in  which  he  afterwards  vainl}'  hoped 
to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  entire  equality,  and  where 
always,  sooner  or  later,  the  King  prevailed  over  the 
companion.  Of  all  his  friends,  the  Marquis  d'Argens 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  cordially  and  most  respect- 
fully attached  to  his  person.  In  the  field  he  was  his 
constant  companion:  their  time  in  winter  quarters  was 
passed  in  each  other's  society.     At  one  time  the  King 


FREDERIC  II.  143 

had  no  other  confidant;  and  he  it  was  who  turned  aside 
his  fixed  purpose  to  commit  suicide,  when,  at  the  most 
desperate  crisis  of  his  affairs,  life  had  become  unbear- 
able. But  D'Argens  committed  the  fault  seldom  par- 
doned by  any  prince,  by  Frederic  never;  he  acted  as  if 
he  believed  his  Royal  friend  sincere  in  desiring  that 
they  should  live  on  equal  terms.  The  pretext  for 
finally  discardinaj  his  ancient  companion  was  poor  in 
the  extreme.  When  the  marquis  consented  to  come 
into  Frederic's  service,  and  leave  his  own  country,  it 
was  upon  the  express  condition  that  he  should  have 
permission  to  return  home  when  he  reached  the  age 
of  seventy.  He  had  a  brother  in  France,  to  whom 
he  was  tenderly  attached,  and  owed  many  obliga- 
tions. As  he  approached  this  period  of  life,  his  brother 
prepared  a  house  and  establishment  for  his  reception; 
and  nothing  was  wanting  but  the  king's  leave  to  make 
him  retire  from  a  service  to  which  he  was  now  ill 
adapted  by  his  years,  and  rendered  averse  by  the  cold- 
ness daily  more  apparent  in  the  treatment  he  received. 
But  Frederic,  notwithstanding  the  bargain,  and  in  spite 
of  his  diminished  attachment  to  this  faithful  follower, 
peremptorily  refused  to  grant  his  discharge :  he  allowed 
him  a  sort  of  furlough  to  see  his  brother,  and  took  his 
promise  to  return  in  six  months.  When  the  visit  was 
paid,  and  the  marquis  had  arrived  at  Bourg  on  his 
return,  the  exertions  which  he  made  to  get  back  within 
the  stipulated  time  threw  him  into  a  dangerous  illness. 
As  soon  as  the  six  months  expired,  Frederic  receiving 
no  letter  and  hearing  nothing  of  him,  became  violently 
enraged,  and  ordered  his  pensions  to  be  stopped,  and 
his  name  to  be  struck  off  the  lists  with  disgrace.  The 
account  of  these  precipitate  measures  reached  the  mar- 
quis as  he  was  on  the  point  of  continuing  his  journey 
after  his  recovery.  And  when  he  died,  the  king  caused 
a  monument  to  be  raised  to  his  memory,  as  a  proof 
that  he  repented  of  his  harsh  and  hasty  proceedings 
against  him. 


144  FREDERIC  II. 

The  treatment  which  Marshal  Schwerin  met  with  for 
gaining  the  battle  of  Molwitz,  is  well  known.  In  order 
to  execute  the  manoeuvre  upon  which  the  victory  de- 
pended, it  was  necessary  that  the  king  should  retire 
from  the  field  at  a  moment  when  success  was  almost  de- 
spaired of.  He  consented,  and  the  tide  was  turned  by 
the  consummate  skill  of  the  general.  Ever  after,  Fre- 
deric treated  him  with  marked  coldness;  neglected  him 
as  far  as  the  necessity  of  claiming  assistance  from  his 
genius  would  permit;  and,  finally,  was  the  cause  of  his 
exposing  himself  to  certain  destruction  at  the  battle  of 
Prague,  where  this  great  master  of  the  art  of  war  fell 
undistinguished  in  the  crowd,  leaving  his  family  to  the 
neglect  of  an  ungrateful  sovereign,  and  his  memory  to 
be  honoured  by  the  enemy  whom  he  had  conquered.* 

After  Frederic  had  quarelled  with  Voltaire,  he  heard 
of  a  Chevalier  Masson,  whose  wit  and  accomplishments 
were  represented  as  sufficient  to  replace  those  which  he 
had  just  lost  by  his  own  vanity  and  caprice.  It  was  with 
difficulty  that  this  gentleman  could  be  induced  to  quit 
the  French  service,  in  which  he  stood  high;  and  when 
he  arrived  at  Berlin,  though  it  very  soon  became  appa- 
rent that  Voltaire's  place  was  not  one  of  those  which 
are  so  easily  supplied,  yet  he  had  qualities  sufficient  to 
recommend  him,  and  was  admitted  instantly  to  the 
royal  circles.  A  single  indiscreet  sally  of  wit  ruined 
him  in  the  king's  favour.  He  retired  in  disgust  to  his 
study,  where  he  lived  the  life  of  a  hermit  for  many 
years,  his  existence  unknown  to  the  world,  and  the 
most  important  of  its  concerns  equally  unknown  to 
him.  As  he  had  thus  sacrificed  all  his  prospects  to 
accept  of  Frederic's  patronage,  and  had  wasted  the 
prime  of  his  life  in  attending  upon  his  capricious  plea- 

•  The  monument  erected  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Prague,  upon 
the  spot  where  the  greatest  of  the  Prussian  captains  fell,  was  raised  by 
the  Emperor  Joseph  II. 


FREDERIC  II.  145 

sure,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  he  would  at 
least  have  been  permitted  to  enjoy  his  poor  pension, 
so  dearly  purchased,  to  the  end  of  his  inoffensive  daj'^s. 
But  after  twenty  years  of  seclusion,  such  as  we  have 
described,  lie  had  his  name  suddenly  struck  from  the 
lists,  and  his  appointments  stopped,  and  was  obliged  to 
seek  his  own  country  with  the  savings  which  his  par- 
simony had  eiiabled  him  to  make. 

The  same  selfish  spirit,  or  carelessness  towards  the 
feelings  and  claims  of  others,  which  marked  Frederic's 
conduct  to  his  family  and  friends,  was  equally  con- 
spicuous in  his  treatment  of  inferior  dependants,  both 
in  the  relations  of  society  and  of  business.  In  his 
familiar  intercourse  with  those  whom  he  permitted  to 
approach  him,  we  can  find  no  line  steadily  drawn  for 
the  regulation  of  his  own  demeanour,  or  of  theirs.  His 
inclination  seems  to  have  been,  that  he  should  always 
maintain  the  manifest  superiority,  without  owing  it  in 
appearance  to  his  exalted  station ;  but  as  soon  as  he 
lost,  or  was  near  losing,  this  first  place  in  a  contest 
upon  fair  terms,  he  was  ready  suddenly  to  call  in  the 
aid  of  the  king.  Thus  it  perpetually  happened,  that  a 
conversation  begun  upon  an  equal  footing,  was  termi- 
nated by  a  single  look  of  authority  from  the  royal 
companion.  He  never  failed  to  indulge  his  sarcastic 
humour  and  high  spirits  in  sallies  directed  with  little 
delicacy  or  discrimination  against  all  around  Iiim;  and 
unless  he  happened  to  have,  at  the  moment,  such  an- 
swers as  might,  without  any  possibility  of  resistance, 
crush  those  whom  his  railleries  had  forced  into  a  re- 
partee, he  was  sure  to  supply  the  defect  by  an  appeal 
to  weapons  which  he  alone  of  the  circle  could  use.  It 
is  not  describing  his  behaviour  correctly,  to  say  that  in 
the  hours  of  relaxation  he  was  fond  of  forgetting  the 
monarch,  provided  his  company  never  forgot  him.  This 
would  at  least  have  been  one  general  rule,  one  principle 
of  behaviour  to  which  all  might  conform  as  soon  as  it 

VOL  II.  13 


146  FREDERIC  II. 

was  made  known.  But  Frederic  laid  down  and  took 
up  his  sceptre  at  moments  which  his  guests  could  never 
divine;  and,  far  from  insisting  that  they  should  always 
have  it  in  their  eyes,  it  would  often  have  heen  a  ground 
for  his  using  it  to  stop  the  colloquy,  if  he  had  perceived 
them  persevere  in  addressing  the  sovereign,  when  he 
was  determined  they  should  talk  to  a  comrade.  The 
only  rule  then  of  his  society,  was  entire  submission  to 
his  caprices;  not  merely  a  passive  obedience,  but  a 
compliance  with  every  whim  and  turn  of  his  mind ; 
sometimes  requiring  to  be  met  with  exertions,  some- 
times to  be  received  in  quiet.  That  we  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  this  meanness,  so  poor 
in  one  who  called  himself  a  Royal  Philosopher,  it  is 
proper  to  remark,  that  all  those  wits  or  other  depen- 
dants with  whom  he  passed  his  time,  were  entirely  sup- 
ported by  his  pensions ;  and  that,  beside  the  dangers  of 
a  fortress,  any  resistance  was  sure  to  cost  them  and 
their  families  their  daily  bread. 

His  ordinary  mode  of  enjoying  society  was,  to  send 
for  a  few  of  the  philosophers  who  were  always  in  rea- 
diness, either  when  he  dined,  or  had  an  hour's  leisure 
from  business,  which  he  wished  to  beguile  by  the  re- 
creations of  talking  and  receiving  worship.  On  one 
of  these  occasions,  the  savans  in  waiting  were,  Quintus 
Icilius*  and  Thiebault;  and  it  happened  that  the  king, 
after  giving  his  opinion  at  great  length,  and  with  his 
usual  freedom,  upon  the  arrangement  of  Providence, 
which  conceals  from  mortals  the  period  of  their  lives, 
called  upon  them  to  urge  whatever  could  be  stated  in 
its  defence.  Quintus,  unwarily  supposing  that  he  really 
wished  to  hear  the  question  discussed,  gave  a  reason, 

*  This  was  a  Leyden  professor,  originally  named  Guichard,  who 
being  fond  of  military  science,  had  been  transformed  into  a  colonel 
of  chasseurs  by  the  king;  and,  then,  from  his  admiration  of  Julius 
Caesar's  aid-de-camp,  had  been  ordered  to  assume  the  name  of  Quintue 
Icilius. 


FREDERIC  II.  147 

whicli  appears  completely  satisfactory.  The  philoso- 
spher  of  Sans-Souci,  however,  only  desired  his  guest 
to  take  the  opposite  side  of  the  argument,  in  the  con- 
viction that  they  were  not  to  invalidate  his  own  reason- 
ing. And  w'hen  Quintus  fairly  destroyed  the  force  of 
it,  by  suggesting,  that  the  certain  knowledge  of  our 
latter  end  would  infallibly  diminish  the  ardour  of  our 
exertions  for  a  considerable  period  beforehand,  the  king 
thought  proper  to  break  out  into  a  violent  personal  invec- 
tive. "  lei,"  (says  Thiebault,  who  witnessed  the  extreme- 
ly singular  but  by  no  means  infrequent  scene,)  "la  foudre 
partit  aussi  subite  qu'imprevuc."  '  Celte  facon  de  juger,^ 
lui  dit  le  Roi, '  est  bonne  pour  vous  clrne  de  bone  et  de 
fange !  Mais  apjirenez,  si  toulefois  vous  le  pouvez,  qus 
ceux  qui  ont  Vdme  noble,  elevee,  et  sensible  aux  charmes 
de  la  vertii,  ne  raisojiment  point  sur  des  maximes  aussi 
miserables  et  aussi  hot^teuses!  Jlpprenez,  Monsieur,  que 
Vhonncte  homme  fait  toujours  le  bien  taut  qu'il  peut  le 
faire,  et  uniquemeiU  parce  que  c'est  le  bien,  sa?is  recher- 
cher  quels  sont  ceux  qui  en  p'ofiteront;  mais  vous  nese?i- 
tez  point  ces  choses:  vous  n'etes  point  fait  pour  les  sentir.^ 
Vol.  I.  p.  84. 

At  one  of  his  literary  entertainments,  when,  in  order 
to  promote  free  conversation,  he  reminded  the  circle 
that  there  was  no  monarch  present,  and  that  every  one 
might  think  aloud,  the  conversation  chanced  to  turn 
upon  the  faults  of  different  governments  and  rulers. 
General  censures  were  passing  from  mouth  to  mouth, 
with  the  kind  of  freedom  which  such  hints  were  calcu- 
lated, and  apparently  intended,  to  inspire.  But  Frederic 
suddenly  put  a  stop  to  the  topic  by  these  words — 
"  Paix !  paix!  Messieurs ;  pre?iez  garde,  voild  le  roi  que 
arrive ;  il  ne  faut  pas  qu'il  vous  entende,  car  peut-etre 
se  croiroit-il  obligi  d'etre  encore  plus  mediant  que  vous." 
V.  p.  329. 

These  sketches  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  conduct  of 
Frederic  in  society,  and  to  show  how  far  he  could  forget 


148  FREDERIC  n. 

iiis  power  in  his  familiai-  intercourse  with  inferiors.  As 
yet,  we  have  seen  only  caprice,  and  that  meanness,  or, 
to  call  it  by  the  right  name,  cowardice,  which  consists 
in  trampling  upon  the  fallen,  and  fighting  with  those 
who  are  bound.  His  treatment  of  persons  employed  in 
his  service,  and  his  manner  of  transactina:  business  with 
them,  presents  us  with  equal  proofs  of  a  tyrannical 
disposition,  and  examples  of  injustice  and  cruelty,  alto- 
gether unparalleled  in  the  history  of  civilized  monar- 
chies. It  is  well  known  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Prussian  army  owes  its  origin  to  a  system  of  crimping, 
which  the  recruiting  officers  carry  on  in  foreign  states, 
and  chiefly  in  the  distant  parts  of  the  empire.  As 
Frederic  II.  did  not  introduce  this  odious  practice,  he 
might,  perhaps  be  allowed  to  escape  severe  censure  for 
not  abolishing  it  generally;  but  there  can  be  only  one 
opinion  upon  his  conduct  in  those  particular  cases  which 
came  to  his  knowledge,  and  where  his  attention  was 
specifically  called  to  the  grievous  injuries  sustained  by 
individuals.  Of  the  many  anecdotes  which  have  been 
preserved,  relative  to  this  point,  one  sample  may  suffice. 
A  French  captain  of  cavalry,  returning  to  his  native 
country,  after  a  long  absence  in  the  West  Indies,  was 
seized,  in  his  journey,  along  the  Rhine,  by  some  Prus- 
sian recruiting  officers;  his  servant  was  spirited  away, 
and  he  was  himself  sent  to  the  army  as  a  private  soldier, 
in  which-  capacity  he  was  forced  to  serve  during  the 
rest  of  the  Seven  years'  war,  against  the  cause,  be  it 
remarked,  of  his  own  country.  In  vain  he  addressed 
letter  after  letter  to  his  friends,  acquainting  them  of  his 
cruel  situation:  the  Prussian  post-office  was  too  well 
regulated  to  let  any  of  these  pass.  His  constant  memo- 
rials to  the  king  were  received  indeed,  but  not  answered. 
After  the  peace  was  concluded,  he  was  marched  with 
his  regiment  into  garrison ;  and  at  the  next  review,  the 
king,  coming  up  to  his  colonel,  inquired  if  a  person 
named  M was  still  in  the  corps.     Upon  his  being 


FREDERIC  II.  149 

produced,  the  King  offered  him  a  commission;  he  de- 
clined it,  and  received  his  discharge. 

It  was  thus  that  Frederic  obtained,  by  kidnapping, 
the  troops  whom  he  used  in  plundering  his  neighbours. 
His  finances  were  frequently  indebted  to  similar  means 
for  their  supply.     The  King's  favourite  Secretary  M. 
Galser,  by  his  orders,  caused  fifteen  milHons  of  ducats  to 
be  made  in  a  very  secret   manner,  with  a  third  of  base 
metal  in  their  composition.    This  sum  was  then  entrusted 
to  a  son  of  the  Jew  Ephraim,  so  well  known  in  the  his- 
tory of  Frederic's  coinage,  for  the  purpose  of  having  it 
circulated  in  Poland,  where  it  was  accordingly  employed 
in  buying  up  every  portable  article  of  value  that  could 
be   found.     The   Poles,  however,  soon  discovered  that 
they  had  been  imposed  upon,  and  contrived  to  transfer 
the  loss  to  their  neighbours,  by  purchasing  with  the  new 
ducats  whatever   they  could   procure  in  Russia.     The 
Russians,  in  like  manner,  found  out  the  cheat,  and  com- 
plained so  loudly  that  the  Empress  interfered,  and  made 
inquiries,  which  led  to  a  discovery  of  the  quarter  whence 
the  issue  had  originally  come.    She  then  ordered  the  bad 
money  to  be  brought  into  her  treasury,  and  exchanged  it 
for  good  coin.     She  insisted  upon  Frederic  taking  the 
false  ducats  at  their  nominal  value,  which  he  did  not 
dare  to  refuse,  but  denied  that  he  had  any  concern  in  the 
transaction;  and  to  prove  this,  sent  for  his  agent  Galser, 
to  whom  he  communicated  the  dilemma  in  which  he 
was,  and  the  necessity  of  giving  him  up  as  the  authorof 
the  imposture.     Galser  objected  to  so  dishonourable  a 
proposal.     The  King  flew  into  a  passion ;  kicked  him 
violently  on   the   shins,  according   to  his  custom :  sent 
him  to  the  fortress  of  Spandaw  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
and  then  banished  him  to  a  remote  village  of  Mecklen- 
burg. 

Frederic  acted  towards  his  officers  upon  a  principle 
the  more  unjust,  as  well  as  unfeeling,  that  can  be  ima- 
gined.    It  was  bis  aim  to  encourage  military  service 

13* 


150  FREDERIC  II. 

among  the  higher  ranks :  the  commonalty  he  conceived 
were  adapted  for  all  the  meaner  employments  in  the 
state,  and  should  not  occupy  those  stations  in  the  army 
which  were,  he  thought,  the  birthright  of  the  aristocracy. 
But  instead  of  carrying  this  view  into  effect,  by  the  only 
arrangement  which  was  reconcilable  with  good  faith — 
establishing  a  certain  standard  of  rank  below  which  no 
one  should  be  admitted  to  hold  a  commission  either  in 
peace  or  in  war — he  allowed  persons  of  all  descriptions 
to  enter  the  army  as  officers,  when  there  was  any  occa- 
sion for  their    services,   and,  after    the   necessity  had 
ceased,  dismissed  those  whose  nobility  appeared  question- 
able.    Thus,  nothing  could  be  more  terrible  to  the  brave 
men,  who  for  years  had  led  his   troops  to  victory,  or 
shared  in  their  distresses,  than  the  return  of  peace.    After 
sacrificing  their  prospects  in  life,  their  best  years,  their 
health,  with  their  ease,  to  the  most  painful  service,  and 
sought,  through  toils  and  wounds,  and  misery,  the  provi- 
sion v/hich  a  certain  rank  in  the  profession  affords,  they 
were  liable,  at  a  moment's  warning,  to  be  turned  igno- 
miniously  out  of  the  armiy,  whose  fortunes  they  had  fol- 
lowed., because  the  king  either  discovered,  or  fancied, 
that  their  family  was  deficient  in  rank. 

We  shall  pass  over  the  extreme  jealousy  with  which 
Frederic  treated  all  those  to  whom  he  was  under  the  ne- 
cessity of  confiding  any  matters  of  state.  Nothing,  in  the 
history  of  eastern  manners,  exceeds  the  rigorous  confine- 
ment of  the  cabinet  secretaries.  But  we  shall  proceed 
to  an  example  of  the  respect  which  the  Justinian  of  the 
North,  the  author  of  the  Frederician  code,  paid  to  the 
persons  of  those  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice in  his  dominions.  This  great  lawgiver  seems  never 
to  have  discovered  the  propriety  of  leaving  his  judges  to 
investigate  the  claims  of  suitors,  any  more  than  he  could 
see  the  advantage  of  committing  to  tradesmen  and 
farmers  the  management  of  their  private  affairs.  In  the 
progress  which  he  made  round  the  states  at  the  season 


FREDERIC  II.  151 

of  the  reviews,  he  used  to  receive  from  all  quarters  the 
complaints  of  those  who  thought  themselves  aggrieved 
by  the  course  of  justice ;  and  because  he  had  to  consi- 
der the  whole  of  these  cases  in  addition  to  all  the  other 
branches  of  his  employment,  he  concluded  that  he  must 
be  a  more  competent  arbiter  than  they  whose  lives  are 
devoted  to  the  settlement  of  one  part  of  such  disputes.  In 
one  of  his  excursions,  a  miller,  a  tenant  of  his  own,  com- 
plained to  him  that  his  stream  was  injured  by  a  neigh- 
bouring proprietor;  and  the  king  ordered  his  chancellor 
to  have,  the  complaint   investigated.      The   suit   was 
brought  in  form,  and  judgment  given  against  the  miller. 
Next  year,  he  renewed  his  application, and  afirmed  that 
his  narrative  of  the  facts  was  perfectly  true;  yet  the  court 
had  nonsuited  him.    The  King  remitted  the  cause  to  the 
second  tribunal,  with  injunctions  to  be  careful  in  doing 
the  man  justice :  he  was,  however^  again  cast;  and  once 
more  complained  bitterly  to  the  king,  who  secretly  sent 
a  major  of  his  army  to  examine  on  the  spot  the  question 
upon  which  his  two  highest  judicatures  had  decided,  and 
to  report.     The  gallant  officer,  who  was  also  a  neigh- 
bour of  the  miller,  reported  in  his  favour;  and  two  other 
persons,  commissioned  in  the  same  private  manner,  re- 
turned  with    similar  answers.     Frederic  immediately 
summoned  his  chancellor  and  the  three  judges  who  had 
determined  the  cause;  he  received  them  in  a   passion, 
would  not  allow  them  to  speak  a  word  in  their  defence; 
upbraided  them  as  unjust  judges,  nay  as  miscreants ;  and 
wrote  out  with  his  own  hand  a  sentence  in  favour  of  the 
miller,  with  full  costs,  and  a  sum  as  damages  which  he 
had  never  claimed.     He  then  dismissed  the  chancellor 
from  his  office,  with  language  too  abusive  to  be  repeated, 
and,  after  violently  kicking  the  three  judges  on  the  shins, 
pushed  them  out  of  his  closet,  and  sent  them  to  prison 
at    the    fortress  of   Spandaw.     All   the  other  judges 
and  ministers  of  justice  were  clearly  of  opinion,  that 
the  sentence  originally  given  against  the  miller  was  a 


152  FREDERIC  ir. 

right  one,  and  that  the  case  admitted  of  no  doubt.   As 
for  the  chancellor,  it  was  universally  allowed  that  the 
matter  came   not  within  his  jurisdiction;   and  that  he 
could  not  possibly  have  known   any  thing  of  the  de- 
cision.  At  last  a  foreign  journalist  undertook  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  business;  and  being  placed  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  royal  philosopher's  caprice,  he  published 
a  statement  which  left  no  shadow  of  argument  in  the 
miller's  favour.      As  Frederic  attended  to  what  was 
written  abroad,  and  in  French,  Linguet's  production 
quickly  opened  his  eyes.     Not  a  word  was  said  in  pub- 
lic; none  of  those  measures  were  adopted,  by  which  a 
great  mind  would  have  rejoiced  to  acknowledge  such 
errors,  and  offer  some  atonement  to  outraged  justice. 
An  irritable  vanity  alone  seemed  poorly  to  regulate  the 
ceremony  of  propitiation:  and  he  who  had  been  mean 
enough  to  insult  the  persons  of  his  judges  in  the  blind- 
ness of  anger,  could  scarcelybe  expected,  after  his  eyes 
were  opened  to  show  that  pride  which  makes  men  cease 
to  deserve  blame,  by  avowing,  while  they  atone  for,  their 
faults.    Orders  were  secreilij  given  to  the  miller's  adver- 
sary, that  he  should  not  obey  the  sentence.     With  the 
same  secrecy,  a  compensation  was  made  to  the  miller 
himself   The  three  judges,  after  lingering  many  months 
in  prison,  were  quietly  liberated:  the   chancellor  was 
allowed  to  remain  in  disgrace,  because  he  had  been  most 
of  all  injured;  and  the  faithful  subjects  of  his  majesty 
knew  too  well  their  duty  and  his  power,  to  interrupt  this 
paltry  silence  by  any  whispers  upon  what  had  passed. 
If  this  svstem  of  interference,  this  intermeddlinir  and 
controlling  spirit,  thus  appeared,  even  in  the  judicial  de- 
partment, much  more  might  it  be  looked  for  in  the  other 
branches  of  his  administration.   It  was,  in  truth,  the  vice 
of  his  whole  reign ;  not  even  suspended  in  its  exercise 
during  war,  but  raging  with  redoubled  violence,  when 
the  comparative  idlenessof  peace  left  his  morbid  activity 
to  prey  upon  itself.     If  any  one  is  desirous  of  seeing 


FREDERIC  II.  153 

how  certainly  a  government  is  unsuccessful  in  trade 
and  manufactures,  he  may  consult  the  sketches  of  this 
boasted  statesman's  speculations  in  tiiat  line,  as  profit- 
ably as  the  accounts  which  have  been  published  of  the 
royal  works  and  fabrics  in  Spain.  But  there  are  parti- 
culars in  the  policy  of  Frederic,  exceeding,  for  absurdity 
and  violence,  whatever  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  descrip- 
tions of  Spanish  political  economy.  We  have  only  room 
for  running  over  a  few  detached  examples. — When  a 
china  manufactory  was  to  be  set  a-going  at  Berlin  on 
the  royal  account,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  begin  by 
forcing  a  market  for  the  wares.  Accordingly  the  Jews, 
who  cannot  marry  without  the  royal  permission,  were 
obliged  to  pay  for  their  licenses  by  purchasing  a  certain 
quantity  of  the  king's  cups  and  saucers  at  a  fixed  price. 
The  introduction  of  the  silk  culture  was  a  favourite 
scheme  with  Frederic;  and  to  make  silk- worms  spin, 
and  mulberry  trees  grow  in  the  Prussian  sands,  no  ex- 
pense must  be  spared.  Vast  houses  and  manufactories 
were  built  for  such  as  chose  to  engage  in  the  specula- 
tion ;  a  direct  premium  was  granted  on  the  exportation 
of  silk  stuffs ;  and  medals  were  awarded  to  the  work- 
men who  produced  above  five  pounds  of  the  article  in  a 
year.  But  nature  is  very  powerful,  even  among  Prus- 
sian grenadiers.  In  the  lists  of  exports  we  find  no  men- 
tion made  of  silk,  while  it  forms  a  considerable  and  a 
regular  branch  of  the  goods  imported.  The  settlement 
of  colonists  in  waste  lands  was  another  object  of  emi- 
nent attention  and  proportionate  expense.  Foreign  fa- 
milies were  enticed  and  transported  by  the  crimps 
whom  he  employed  all  over  Europe  for  recruiting  his 
forces;  they  received  grants  of  land;  were  provided 
with  houses,  implements,  and  hve-stock,  and  furnished 
with  subsistence,  until  their  farms  became  sufficiently 
productive  to  support  them.  Frederic  called  this  sup- 
plying the  blanks  which  war  made  in  his  population.— 
His  rage  for  encouraging  the  introduction  of  new  specu- 


154  FREDERIC  11. 

lations  was  quite  ungovernable.  No  sooner  did  his 
emissaries  inforn:i  him  of  any  ingenious  manufacturer  or 
mechanic,  in  France  or  elsewhere,  than  he  bribed  him 
to  settle  in  Berlin,  by  the  most  extravagant  terms. 
When  he  found  the  success  of  the  project  too  slow,  or 
its  gains,  from  the  necessity  of  circumstances,  fell  short 
of  expectation,  he  had  only  one  way  of  getting  out  of 
the  scrape; — he  broke  his  bargain  with  the  undertaker, 
and  generally  sent  him  to  a  fortress;  in  the  course  of 
which  transaction,  it  always  happened  that  somebody  in- 
terfered, under  the  character  of  a  minister,  a  favourite, 
&c.,  to  pillage  both  parties.  Experience  never  seemed 
to  correct  this  propensity.  It  was  at  an  advanced  pe- 
riod of  his  reign  that  he  sent  orders  to  his  ambassadors 
to  find  him  a  general  projector — a  man  who  might  be 
employed  wholly  in  fancying  new  schemes,  and  discuss- 
ing those  which  should  be  submitted  to  him.  Such  a 
one  was  accordingly  procured,  and  tempted,  by  large 
bribes,  to  settle  at  Potsdam. 

Frederic's  grand  instrument  in  political  economy  was 
the  establishment  of  monopolies.  Whether  an  art  was 
to  be  encouraged,  or  a  public  taste  modified,  or  a  re- 
venue gleaned,  or  the  balance  of  trade  adjusted,  a  mo- 
nopoly was  the  expedient.  Thus  the  exclusive  privi- 
lege was  granted  to  one  family,  of  supplying  Berlin  and 
Potsdam  with  fire- wood;  the  price  was  instantly  dou- 
bled ;  and  the  king  received  no  more  than  eight  thou- 
sand a  year  of  the  profits.  Well  did  the  celebrated 
Helvetius  remark  of  some  applications  for  such  con- 
tracts, upon  which  the  king  demanded  his  sentiments, 
"  Sire,  you  need  not  trouble  yourself  with  reading  them 
through ;  they  all  speak  the  same  language — '  We  be- 
seech your  Majesty  to  grant  us  leave  to  rob  your  people 
of  such  a  Sum;  in  consideration  ofiuhich,  we  engage  to 
pay  you  a  certain  share  of  the  pillage.'  "  Frederic  was 
led  to  conceive  that  his  subjects  drank  too  much  coflTee 
in  proportion  to  their  means,  and  ate  too  little  nourish- 


FREDERIC  II.  155 

little  nourishing  food.  The  universal  remedy  was  ap- 
plied; and  the  supply  of  all  the  coffee  used  within  his 
dominions  given  exclusively  to  a  company.  The  price 
was  thus,  as  he  had  wished,  greatly  raised,  and  some  of 
the  spoil  shared  with  his  treasury;  hut  the  taste  of  the 
people  remained  as  determined  in  favour  of  coffee  as 
before,  and  of  course  was  much  more  detrimental  to 
their  living.  Tobacco,  in  like  manner,  he  subjected  to 
a  strict  monopoly;  and  when  he  wished  to  have  arms 
furnished  very  cheap  to  his  troops,  he  had  again  re- 
course to  his  usual  expedient:  he  conferred  upon  the 
house  of  Daum  and  Splikberg,  armorers,  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  refining  sugar,  on  condition  that  they  should 
sell  him  muskets  and  caps  at  a  very  low  price.  In  all 
his  fiscal  policy,  he  was  an  anxious  observer  of  the 
balance  of  trade,  and  never  failed  to  cast  a  pensive  eye 
upon  the  tables  of  exports  and  imports.  "  Every  year," 
says  one  of  his  panegyrists,  "  did  he  calculate  with  ex- 
treme attention  the  sums  which  came  into  his  states 
and  those  which  went  out;  and  he  saw,  with  uneasiness, 
that  the  balance  was  not  so  favourable  as  it  ought  to 
be."*  After  all  his  monopolies  and  premiums  for  the 
encouragement  of  production,  he  found,  it  seems,  that 
the  exports  of  his  kingdom  could  not  be  augmented. 
'•Therefore,"  adds  this  author,  "he  had  only  one  re- 
source left — to  diminish  the  importation;"  which  he 
accordingly  attempted,  by  new  monopolies  and  pro- 
hibitions. 

It  remains,  before  completing  our  estimate  of  Frede- 
ric's character,  that  we  should  recollect  his  public  con- 
duct in  the  commonwealth  of  Europe,  where  he  vv'as 
born  to  hold  so  conspicuous  a  station.  And  here,  while 
we  wonder  at  the  abilities  which  led  him  to  success,  ii, 
is  impossible  not  to  admit  that  they  belonged  to  that  in- 
ferior order  which  can  brook  an  alliance  with  profligacy 

*  ThiebauU,  iv.  127. 


156  FREDERIC  II. 

and  entire  want  of  principle.  Tlie  history  of  the  Prus- 
sian monarchy,  indeed,  is  that  of  an  empire  scraped 
together  by  industry,  and  fraud,  and  violence,  from 
neighbouring  states.  By  barter,  and  conquest,  and 
imposture,  its  manifold  districts  have  been  gradually 
brought  into  one  dynasty;  not  a  patch  of  the  motley 
mass,  but  recalls  the  venality  or  weakness  of  the  sur- 
rounding powers,  and  the  unprincipled  usurpations  of 
the  house  of  Brandenburgh.  But  it  was  Frederic  II. 
whose  strides,  far  surpassing  those  of  his  ancestors, 
raised  his  family  to  the  rank  of  a  primary  power; 
enabled  him  to  baffle  the  coalition  which  his  ambition 
had  raised  against  him  ;  and  gave  the  means  of  forming, 
himself,  a  new  conspiracy  for  the  destruction  of  what- 
ever principles  had  been  held  most  sacred  by  the  poten- 
tates of  modern  times.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  dissemble 
with  ourselves,  and  endeavour  to  forget  our  own  conduct 
at  that  fatal  crisis.  We  may  rail  at  Jacobinism,  and  the 
French  Revolution — impute  to  the  timidity  of  the  other 
powers  the  insolent  dominion  of  Republican  France — 
and  exhaust  our  effeminate  license  of  tongue  upon  the 
chief,  who,  by  v/ielding  her  destinies,  made  himself 
master  of  half  the  world.  Europe  sufiered  by,  and  is 
still  suffering  for  the  partition  of  Poland.  Then  it  was, 
that  public  principles  were  torn  up  and  scattered  before 
the  usurpers  of  the  day; — then  it  was,  that  England 
and  France  poorly  refused  to  suspend  their  mutual 
animosities,  and  associate  in  support  of  right,  when 
other  states,  forgetting  greater  jealousies,  were  com- 
bined to  violate  the  law ; — then  it  was,  that  power  be- 
came the  measure  of  duty — that  ambition  learnt  all 
the  lessons  which  it  has  since  been  practising  of  arron- 
dlssemenls,  and  equivalents,  and  indemnities — that  an 
assurance  of  impunity  and  success  was  held  out  to  those 
who  might  afterwards  abandon  all  principle,  provided 
they  were  content  with  a  share  of  the  plunder,  and 
that  the  lesson  was  learnt  which  the  settlers  of  Europe 


FREDERIC  II.  157 

practised  in  1814  and  1815,  the  lesson  which  they  are 
again  practising  in  1839,  of  transferring  from  the  weak 
to  the  strong  whatever  portions  of  the  territory  it  may 
please  them  to  take,  without  consulting  the  wishes  of 
the  inhabitants  more  than  the  cattle  that  drag  the  plough 
through  their  fields.  While  we  look  back  with  detesta- 
tion, then,  on  the  conduct  of  those  powers  who  perpe- 
trated the  crime,  and  most  of  all  on  Frederic,  who 
contrived  it,  let  us  also  reflect,  with  shame,  on  the 
pusillanimity  of  those  who  saw,  yet  helped  not ;  and,  in 
justice  to  the  memory  of  a  truly  great  man,  let  us  bear 
in  mind,  that  he  who  afterwards  warned  us  against  the 
usurpations  of  France  at  their  nearer  approach,  raised 
his  voice  against  the  dereliction  of  principle  which  paved 
the  way  for  them  in  the  Partition  of  Poland,* 

The  details  into  which  we  have  entered,  as  descriptive 
of  Frederic's  character,  may  seem  to  be  out  of  keeping 
in  a  sketch  like  this.  But  the  universal  belief  of  his 
greatness,  and  the  disposition  to  exalt  his  merits  because 
of  the  success  which  followed  his  ambition,  renders  it 
necessary  to  reduce  those  merits  to  their  true  dimensions, 
which  no  general  description  could  efl'ect. 

Upon  the  whole,  all  well-regulated  minds  will  turn 
from  a  minute  view  of  this  famous  personage,  impressed 
with  no  veneration  for  his  character,  either  as  a  member 
of  society,  a  ruler  of  the  people,  or  a  part  of  the 
European  community.  That  he  possessed  the  talents 
of  an  accomplished  warrior,  and  an  elegant  wit,  it 
would  be  absurd  to  deny,  and  superfluous  to  demon- 
strate. He  has  left  us,  in  his  victories  and  his 
writings,  the  best  proofs  ;  and  all  that  is  preserved  of 
his  conversation  leads  to  a  belief  that  it  surpassed  his 
more  careful  etTorts.  He  ranked  unquestionably  in  the 
first  class  of  warriors ;  nor  is  it  doubtful  that  the  system 
by  which,  when  carrried  to  its  full  extent,  Napoleon's 

*  Mr.  Burke. 
VOL.  II.  14 


158  FREDERIC  II. 

victories  were  gained,  had  its  origin  in  the  strategy  of 
Frederic, — the  plan,  namely,  of  rapidly  moving  vast 
masses  of  troops,  and  always  bringing  a  superior  force 
to  bear  upon  the  point  of  attack.  His  administration, 
whether  military  or  civil,  was  singularly  marked  by 
promptitude  and  energy.  Wherever  active  exertion  was 
required,  or  could  secure  success,  he  was  likely  to  pre- 
vail; and  as  he  was  in  all  things  a  master  of  those  in- 
ferior abilities  which  constitute  what  we  denominate 
address,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  he  was  uniformly  for- 
tunate in  the  cabinets  of  his  neighbours.  The  encou- 
ragements which  he  lavished  on  learned  men  were  use- 
ful, though  not  always  skilfully  bestowed ;  and  in  this, 
as  in  all  the  departments  of  his  government,  we  see  him 
constantly  working  mischief  by  working  too  much.  His 
Academy  was  no  less  under  command  than  the  best  dis- 
ciplined regiment  in  the  service ;  and  did  not  refuse  to 
acknowledge  his  authority  upon  matters  of  scientific 
opinion  or  of  taste  in  the  arts.  His  own  literary  ac- 
quirements were  limited  to  the  belles  lettres  and  moral 
sciences ;  even  of  these  he  was  far  from  being  com- 
pletely master.  His  practice,  as  an  administrator,  is 
inconsistent  with  an  extensive  or  sound  political  know- 
ledge ;  and  his  acquaintance  with  the  classics  was  de- 
rived from  French  translations ;  he  knew  very  little 
Latin,  and  no  Greek.  To  his  sprightliness  in  society, 
and  his  love  of  literary  company,  so  rare  in  princes,  he 
owes  the  reputation  of  a  philosopher ;  and  to  the  success 
of  his  intrigues  and  his  arms,  the  appellation  of  Great : 
a  title  which  is  less  honourable,  that  mankind  have 
generally  agreed  to  bestow  it  upon  those  to  whom  their 
gratitude  was  least  of  all  due. 


GUSTAVUS  III. 


GUSTAVUS  III. 


The  nephew  of  Frederic  II.  was  Gustavus  III.  of 
Sweden,  and  he  is  certainly  entitled  to  rank  among 
the  more  distinguished  men  of  his  age.  It  was  the 
saying  of  Frederic,  "  My  nephew  is  an  extraordinary 
person ;  he  succeeds  in  all  he  undertakes ;"  and  consi- 
dering the  difficulties  of  his  position,  the  adverse  circum- 
stances in  which  some  of  his  enterprises  were  attempted, 
his  success  amply  justified  the  panegyric  at  the  litne  it 
was  pronounced,  and  before  the  military  disasters  of  his 
reign. 

He  was  born  with  a  great  ambition  to  distinguish, 
both  his  country  among  the  nations  of  Europe  and  him- 
self among  her  sovereigns.  Inflamed  with  the  recol- 
lection  of  former  Swedish  monarchs,  and  impatient  of 
the  low  position  to  which  the  ancient  renown  of  his 
country  had  fallen  through  a  succession  of  feeble 
princes,  he  formed  the  project  of  relieving  the  crown 
from  the  trammels  imposed  upon  it  by  an  overwhelming 
aristocracy,  as  the  only  means  by  which  the  old  glories 
of  Sweden  could  be  revived,  and  the  influence  of  the 
Gustavuses  and  the  Charleses  restored.  The  king  of 
the  country,  indeed,  when  he  ascended  the  throne  was 
its  sovereign  only  in  name.  He  had  all  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  government  cast  upon  him  ;  he  had  all  its 
weight  resting  upon  his  shoulders ;  he  had  all  the 
odium  of  executing  the  laws  to  suppress  sedition,  to 
levy  taxes,  to  punish  offenders.  But  neither  in  making 
those  laws,  nor  in  guiding  the  policy  of  the  state,  nor 
in  administering  its  resources,  had  he  any  perceptible 
influence  whatever.  The  crown  was  a  mere  pageant 
of  state,  wholly  destitute  of  power,  and  only  supposed 

14* 


162  GUSTAVUS  HI. 

to  exist  because  the  multitude,  accustomed  to  be  go- 
verned by  kings,  required  acts  of  authority  to  be  pro- 
mulged  in  the  royal  name,  and  because  it  was  conve- 
nient to  have  some  quarter  upon  which  the  blame  of  all 
that  was  unpopular  in  the  conduct  of  the  government 
might  rest.  The  real  power  of  the  state  was  certainly 
in  the  hands  of  the  Aristocracy,  who  ruled,  through  the 
medium  of  the  States,  an  assembly  of  nominal  represen- 
tatives of  the  country,  in  which  the  order  of  the  nobles 
alone  bore  sway.  The  Senate  in  fact  governed  the 
country.  In  them  was  vested  almost  all  the  patronage 
of  the  state ;  they  could  compel  meetings  of  the  Diet  at 
any  time  ;  they  even  claimed  the  command  of  the  army, 
and  issued  their  orders  to  the  troops  without  the  king's 
consent. 

When  C4ustavus  was  abroad  on  his  travels,  being  then 
about  22  years  of  age,  his  father  died,  and  from  Paris, 
where  the  intelligence  reached  him,  he  addressed  a  De- 
claration filled  with  the  most  extravagant  expressions  of 
devotion  to  the  constitution,  zeal  for  the  liberties  of  his 
people,  and  abhorrence  of  every  thing  tending  towards 
absolute  government,  or  what  in  Sweden  is  termed 
"  Sovereignty ;"  for  the  Swedes,  like  the  Romans,  re- 
garded monarchy,  except  in  name,  as  equivalent  to 
tyranny.  He  vowed  that  "  deeming  it  his  chiefest 
glory  to  be  the  first  citizen  of  a  free  state"  he  should 
regard  all  those  "  as  his  worst  enemies,  who,  being 
traitorous  to  the  country,  should  upon  any  pretext  what- 
ever seek  to  introduce  unlimited  royal  authority  into 
Sweden,"  and  he  reminded  the  States  of  the  oath  which 
he  had  solemnly  sworn  to  the  constitution.  .  Those  who 
read  this  piece  were  struck  with  the  overdone  expres- 
sions in  which  it  was  couched  ;  and  profound  observers 
did  not  hesitate  to  draw  conclusions  wholly  unfavour- 
able to  the  sincerity  of  the  royal  author.  On  his  arrival 
in  Sweden,  whither  he  was  in  little  haste  to  return,  he 
renewed  the  same  vows  of  fealty  to  the  existing  consti- 


GusTAVus  in.  163 

tulion ;  signed  the  articles  of  the  Capitulation  tendered 
by  the  States  in  the  usual  form,  articles  which  left  him 
the  name  of  king  and  the  shadow  of  royal  authority  ; 
absolved  the  States  and  his  subjects  from  their  allegiance 
should  he  depart  from  his  engagements,  and  menaced 
with  his  "  utmost  wrath  all  who  should  dare  to  propose 
a  single  degree  of  addition  to  the  present  power  or 
splendour  of  the  crown."  At  his  Coronation,  which  was 
postponed  to  the  next  year,  he  volunteered  an  addi- 
tional display  of  gratuitous  hypocrisy  and  fraud,  when, 
having  taken  the  oaths  to  the  constitution,  he  exclaimed 
"  Unhappy  the  king  who  wants  the  tie  of  oaths  to  secure 
himself  on  the  throne,  and,  unable  to  reign  in  the  hearts 
of  his  people  is  forced  to  rule  by  legal  constraint !" 

Thus  did  this  accomplished  dissembler  contrive,  for 
above  a  year  and  a  half,  to  keep  up  the  appearance 
of  a  constitutional  king,  while  in  all  his  works  and 
actions  he  affected  the  republican,  and  even  overdid 
the  part.  At  length  his  preparations  being  completed, 
he  cast  the  mask  away,  excited  an  insurrection  of 
troops  in  two  distant  fortresses  to  distract  the  senate's 
attention,  and  having  gained  over  the  regiments  in  the 
capital,  secured  the  persons  of  the  senators,  assembled 
the  other  Estates  in  a  hall  surrounded  with  soldiery,  and 
against  which  guns  were  planted  and  men  stationed 
with  lighted  matches,  while  he  dictated  a  new  constitu- 
tion vesting  absolute  power  in  the  crown,  and  annihi- 
lating the  influence  of  both  the  nobility  and  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  people.  This  outrageous  act  of 
combined  treachery  and  violence  he  concluded  as  he 
had  began  with  the  mockery  of  oaths,  and  the  most  ex- 
travagant cant  of  piety.  He  swore  to  the  new  constitu- 
tion ;  he  invoked  the  Divine  blessings  on  it  in  a  hvpo- 
critical  prayer ;  and  he  ended  by  ordering  all  present  to 
sing  a  psalm,  of  which  he  gave  out  the  first  line  and 
led  the  air.  Certainly  so  gross  an  instance  of  sustained 
falsehood  and  fraud,  in  all  its  departments,  was  never 


164  GUSTAVUS  III. 

either  before  or  since  exhibited  by  any  even  of  the  royal 
hypocrites  who  have  at  various  times  encroached,  by 
stratagem  and  by  perjury,  upon  the  liberties  of  mankind. 

It  is  fit  that  the  history  of  this  transaction  should  be 
set  forth  in  its  own  hateful  colours,  because  it  both  was 
at  the  time,  and  has  been  since,  made  the  subject  of 
great  panegyric  among  the  admirers  of  successful 
crime.  Mankind  will  never  be  without  oppressors  as 
long  as  they  act  against  their  own  best  interests  by  con- 
spiring against  those  of  virtue,  and  make  impostors  of 
statesmen  and  tyrants  of  princes  by  transferring  to  suc- 
cess the  praise  that  should  be  reserved  for  virtue,  vene- 
rating fortune  rather  than  prudence,  and  defrauding  the 
wise  and  the  good  of  their  just  applause,  or  suffering  it 
to  be  shared  with  the  profligate  and  the  daring.  A 
premium  is  thus  held  out  for  unscrupulous  violence  and 
unprincipled  fraud,  when  the  failure  of  the  worst  and 
the  best  designs  is  alone  and  alike  condemned,  and  the 
means  by  which  success  is  achieved  are  lost  sight  of  in 
the  false  lustre  that  surrounds  it. 

But  tried  by  a  far  lower  standard  than  that  of  public 
virtue,  the  conduct  of  Gustavus  manifestlv  fails.  If 
nothing  could  more  betray  a  base  disposition  than 
his  consummate  hypocrisy,  so  nothing  could  more 
show  a  paltry  mind  than  the  practising  his  fraudulent 
pretences  when  they  were  wholly  unnecessary  for  his 
purpose.  He  might  have  plotted  the  overthrow  of  the 
constitution  just  as  safely  and  with  quite  as  much 
chance  of  success  had  he  accepted  the  constitution  in 
the  ordinary  way,  and  signed  the  usual  Capitulation  as 
a  matter  of  course.  No  one  objected  to  his  title :  while 
his  father  yet  lived  he  had  been  acknowledged  the  next 
heir  ;  his  succession  was  certain  on  his  father's  death ; 
and  if  any  thing  could  have  directed  suspicion  to  his 
hidden  designs  it  was  the  pains  he  took,  by  his  extrava- 
gant profesions  of  zealous  devotion  to  Liberty,  to  show 
that  he  was  plotting  against  her.     He  had  nothing  to 


GUSTAVUS  III.  165 

do  but  to  plan  his  operations  in  secret,  and  in  secret 
to  obtain  the  support  of  the  four  or  five  regiments  by 
which  he  eflccted  his  purpose.  All  his  vile  canting, 
both  in  the  declaration  from  Paris  and  in  the  speech 
on  swearing  to  the  constitution,  was  utterly  useless ; 
it  only  showed  a  petty  understanding  as  well  as  a  cor- 
rupt heart. 

Truly  he  was  a  profligate  man  in  every  sense  of  the 
word.     He   delighted    in   cunning    for   cunning's    sake. 
He  preferred  accomplishing  his  ends  by  trick,  and  the 
more   tricky  any  course  was  the   more    dexterous    he 
thought  his  pursuit  of  it,  and  the  better  he  liked  it.     His 
abilities  were  unquestionable,  but  they  were  on  a  paltry 
scale;  his  resolution  was  undoubted,  but  he  was  placed 
in  circumstances  which  enabled  him  to  avoid  running 
any  great  risks ;  for  nothing  can  be  more  unwieldy  than 
a  Senate  of  sixty  or  seventy  persons  as  directing  a  mili- 
tary force ;  and  the  mob  was  for  him  and  against  them. 
That   he   showed    great   coolness   through   the   whole 
affair  is  not  denied.     He  quietly  effected  the  Revolution 
on  the  21st  of  August,  and   retired  to  a  country  seat 
twenty  miles   from    Stockholm,   Ekolsund,    afterwards 
the   property  of  a   Scotch   gentleman,   named    Seton, 
whom  he   ennobled.     We   have  seen  there  a  line  or 
two  written  by  him  on  the  window-shutter,  with  the 
above  date,  and  purporting  that,  "On  this  day,  he  had 
come  there  after  the  Revolution."     When  the  supreme 
power  was  lod'i^ed  in  his  own  hands,  although  he  main- 
tained it  without  even  a  struggle,  and  afterwards  still 
further  extended  it  by  a  second  breach  of  the  consti- 
tution  (which  in    1772  he  had  so  solemnly  sworn   to 
maintain,  as  he  had  the  one  which  he  then  overthrew), 
yet  there  was  nothing  enlarged  or  successful  in  his  ad- 
ministration   of    public    affairs,    nothing    in    his    policy 
which   showed    an   enlightened   or   well-informed   any 
more  than  a  liberal  mind.     Supporting  an  East  India 
Company,  and  prohibiting  the  use  of  coffee  under  se- 


166  GUSTAVUS  III. 

vere  penalties  to  encourage  their  trade  in  tea,  or  pro- 
hibiting French  brandy  to  protect  the  distillation  of  a 
very  bad  spirit  from  corn,  were  the  greatest  reach  of 
his  genius  for  economical  improvements  ;  while,  by  his 
military  expenditure  and  his  fraudulent  tampering  first 
with  the  coin  and  afterwards  with  the  paper  currency, 
which  he  issued  in  excess,  he  so  reduced  the  standard, 
that  soon  after  his  death  it  was  at  a  discount  of  nearly 
50  per  cent,  below  par.  The  bank  paper  kept  its  value; 
but  with  this  he  managed  to  interfere,  and  in  a  manner 
so  scandalous  that  the  history  of  royal  profligacy  pre- 
sents no  second  example  of  any  thing  so  mean  and  base. 
An  extensive  forgery  was  committed  in  Hamburgh  or 
Altona  upon  the  Stockholm  Bank  by  parties  whom  he 
employed  and  then  gave  up.  The  Bank  having  de- 
tected it  in  time  was  saved  from  ruin,  though  impo- 
verished; and  the  agents  in  the  infamous  plot  reaped 
the  usual  reward  of  those  who  suffer  themselves  to  be 
made  the  instruments  in  the  villanies  of  princes ;  they 
were  punished  because  their  principal  was  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  law,  and  they  wandered  abroad  exiles  for 
the  rest  of  their  days. 

In  his  military  capacity  he  showed  talents  of  consi- 
derable extent,  though,  as  in  other  respects,  not  of  the 
first  order.  He  was  active,  enterprising,  prodigal  of  his 
person  :  but  so  little  measuring  his  designs  by  his  means, 
that  he  obtained  for  himself  the  reputation  of  being  a 
restless  prince  rather  than  the  fame  of  a  considerable 
v.'arrior;  and  so  little  equal  to  form  great  and  happy 
and  well-considered  combinations,  that  he  never  went 
beyond  daring  and  brilliant  failures.  The  absolute  in- 
fluence of  Russia  under  the  Aristocratic  government 
having  been  put  an  end  to  by  the  Revolution,  ever  after 
1772  Catherine  was  plotting  to  regain  her  ascendant,  or 
to  obtain  by  force  a  still  more  undisputed  sway  over 
Swedish  affairs.  To  all  her  intiigues  Gustavus  was 
alive,  and  often  succeeded  in  counteracting  them  ;  to  all 


GUSTAVUS  111.  167 

her  insidious  proposals  he  was  deaf,  seeing  through  their 
real  object,  as  when  she  would  have  inveigled  hi  n  into 
a  partition  of  Denmark,  Norway,  to  become  Russian, 
and  Jutland  with  the  islands,  Swedish,  he  made  answer 
that  "  She  should  not  put  her  arm  around  his  neck  to 
strangle  him."  Indeed  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  she 
only  wished  to  draw  him  into  a  snare  by  obtaining  his 
consent,  that  she  might  betray  him  to  Denmark,  and 
join  with  her  in  destroying  him.  When,  therefore,  the 
terms  on  which  these  two  profligate  Sovereigns  were 
with  each  other  had  become  as  unfriendly  as  possible, 
and  he  found  Russia  engaged  on  the  side  of  Turkey  in 
a  very  diflerent  warfare,  he  seized  the  opportunity  of 
attacking  her,  and  sailed  with  a  fleet  up  the  gulf  of 
Finland,  so  as  to  threaten  Petersburgh  by  his  approach. 
His  first  operations  were  successful,  though  on  a  small 
scale,  and  in  a  degree  far  more  decisive.  A  battle  was 
then  fouajht  in  circumstances  so  adverse  to  any  such 
operation,  that  it  seemed  as  much  contrary  to  nature  m 
a  physical  as  in  a  moral  view;  for  the  channel  was  nar- 
row, studded  with  islands,  broken  with  rocks  at  every 
step,  and  defying  all  nautical  skill  to  steer  through 
unless  with  favouring  weather,  and  without  any  other 
occupation  than  that  of  seamanship.  Yet  here  did  the 
hostile  fleets  engage  for  many  hours,  with  immense 
slaughter  on  both  sides,  and  so  balanced  a  result,  that 
each  claimed  the  victory.  The  Russians,  however,  being 
greatly  superior  in  numbers,  kept  the  sea  afterwards, 
and  the  Swedes  retreated.  An  opposition  in  the  Senate 
interposed  new  obstacles  to  Gustavus's  projects,  and  he 
treated  this  with  his  wonted  vigour.  Appealing  for  sup- 
port to  the  other  orders,  and  then  surrounding  that 
refractory  and  disaffected  body  with  troops  on  whose 
fidelity  he  could  rely,  he  arrested  five-and-thirty  of  them, 
and  abolished  the  Senate  by  a  sudden  change  of  his  own 
constitution,  and  a  new  violation  of  his  most  solemn  en- 
gagements.    His  next  campaign  was  thus  freed  from 


168  GUSTAVUS  III. 

political  embarrassment,  but  it  was  throughout  disastrous. 
Defeated  by  sea,  on  shore  he  was  still  more  unfortunate ; 
his  army,  officers  as  well  as  men,  refused  to  obey  him  ; 
and  he  was  reduced  to  the  deplorable  expedient,  easily 
suggested  by  the  rooted  falseness  of  his  nature,  of  amus- 
ing the  people  with  fictitious  accounts  of  his  proceedings ; 
but  his  fictions  were  so  clumsy  that  their  self-contradic- 
tions betrayed  their  origin,  and  the  honest  Prince  of 
Nassau  was  induced  to  complain  formally  of  such  a  pro- 
ceeding, bluntly  and  ineffectually  reminding  the  monarch 
that  such  gross  and  apparent  falsehoods  were  wholly 
unworthy  a  man  who  was  always  desirous  of  playing  the 
warrior  and  the  hero. 

In  these  disastrous  scenes,  from  the  consequences  of 
which  Sweden  did  not  recover  for  many  years,  and  the 
effects  of  which  long  survived  their  author,  it  is  admitted 
on  all  hands  that  his  abilities  were  advantageously 
shown,  but  above  nil,  that  his  courage  was  uniformly 
displayed  in  an  eminent  degree.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
capacity  could  have  made  up  for  the  vast  disparity  of 
strength  between  the  two  parties  who  were  thus  matched 
in  such  unequal  combat;  but  he  often  succeeded  where 
an  ordinary  man  would  never  have  ventured  ;  and  al- 
though he  could  not  be  said  to  display  first-rate  talents 
for  war,  he  yet  had  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  the  part 
he  played  in  its  operations. 

In  private  life  his  profligacy  was  of  the  grossest  de-- 
scription ;  and  with  the  same  preposterous  folly  which 
made  him  prefer  the  most  crooked  paths  in  order  to  show 
his  cunning,  he  thought  that  his  grand  object  of  civilising 
his  dominions  could  be  accomplished  by  patronising  the 
introduction  of  foreign  vices  from  other  climates  among 
the  hardy  and  sober  children  of  the  North.  He  was, 
however,  a  patron  of  the  fine  arts ;  greatly  improved 
the  architecture  of  his  capital ;  established  an  opera  on  a 
respectable  scale;  and  encouraged  some  excellent  artists, 
of  whom  Sergei,  the  sculptor,  was  the  most  eminent. 


GUSTAVUS    III.  169 

His  personal  accomplishments  were  considerable; 
his  information  was  much'  above  that  of  ordinary 
princes ;  and  though  he  never  attempted  so  much  as  his 
uncle  of  Prussia,  nor  possessed  equally  the  superficial 
kind  of  learning  which  that  prince  prided  himself  upon, 
he  certainly  wrote  a  great  deal  better,  or  rather  less 
badly,  and  probably  was  not  really  his  inferior  in  a  li- 
terary point  of  view.  His  manners  and  address  were 
extremely  engaging,  and  he  was  greatly  above  the 
folly  of  standing  on  the  dignity  of  his  station,  as  his 
liberal  literary  uncle,  Frederic,  always  did ;  who, 
willing  enough  to  pass  for  a  wit  among  kings,  was  al- 
ways ready  enough  to  be  a  king  among  wits,  so  that 
when  the  wit  was  beaten  in  fair  argument,  he  might  call 
in  the  king  to  his  assistance.  Gustavus,  though  a  far 
inferior  person  in  other  respects,  was  greatly  above 
such  mean  vanity  as  this ;  ever  showed  sufficient  con- 
fidence in  his  own  resources  to  meet  his  company  upon 
equal  terms ;  and  having  once  begun  the  discussion  by 
admitting  them  to  the  same  footing  with  himself,  scorned 
to  change  his  ground  or  his  character,  and  substitute 
authority  for  argument  or  for  repartee.  It  was  the  ob- 
servation of  a  man  well  versed  in  courts,  and  who  had 
seen  much  of  the  princes  of  his  time,*  that  Gustavus 
III.  was  almost  the  only  one  of  them  who  would  have 
been  reckoned  a  clever  man  in  society  had  he  been  born 
a  subject. 

The  same  spirit  which  he  showed  in  the  field,  and  in 
his  political  measures,  he  displayed  equally  in  the  va- 
rious attempts  made  upon  his  life.  The  arsenals  and 
museums  of  Stockholm  have  several  deadly  instruments 
preserved  in  them,  which  were  aimed  at  his  person  :  and 
in  no  instance  did  he  ever  lose  his  presence  of  mind,  or 
let  the  attempt  be  known,  which  by  some  extraordinary 
accident  had  failed.     At  last  he  fell  by  an  assassin's 

*  Sir  Robert  Liston. 
VOL.  II.  15 


170  GUSTAVUS  III. 

hand.  For  some  mysterious  reason,  apparently  uncon- 
nected with  pohtical  matters,  an  officer  named  Anker- 
stroem,  not  a  noble  or  connected  with  the  nobiUty,  shot 
him  in  the  back  at  a  masquerade.  The  ground  of 
quarrel  apparently  was  personal;  different  accounts, 
some  more  discreditable  to  the  monarch  than  others, 
are  given  of  it ;  but  nothing  has  been  ascertained  on 
sufficient  evidence  ;  and  these  are  subjects  upon  which 
no  public  end  is  served  by  collecting  or  preserving  con- 
jectures. To  dwell  upon  them  rather  degrades  history 
into  gossiping  or  tale-bearing,  and  neither  explains 
men's  motives,  nor  helps  us  to  weigh  more  accurately 
the  merits  of  their  conduct  any  more  than  to  ascertain 
its  springs. 

The  story  of  the  fortunes  of  this  prince  presents 
no  unimportant  lessons  to  statesmen  of  the  relative 
value  of  those  gifts  which  they  are  wont  most  to  prize, 
and  the  talents  which  they  are  fondest  of  cultivat- 
ing. A  useful  moral  may  also  be  drawn  from  the  tale 
of  so  many  fine  endowments  being  thrown  away,  and 
failing  to  earn  enduring  renown,  merely  because  they 
were  unconnected  with  good  principles,  and  unaccom- 
panied by  right  feelings.  The  qualities  which  he  pos- 
sessed, or  improved,  or  acquired,  were  the  most  cal- 
culated to  strike  the  vulgar,  and  to  gain  the  applause  of 
the  unreflecting  multitude.  Brave,  determined,  gifted 
as  well  with  political  courage  as  with  pjersonal  valour, 
quick  of  apprehension,  capable  of  application,  patient  of 
fatigue,  well  informed  on  general  subjects,  elegant,  lively, 
and  agreeable  in  society,  affable,  relying  on  his  merits 
in  conversation,  and  overbearing  with  his  rank  none 
that  approached  him — who  so  well  fitted  to  win  all 
hearts,  if  common  popularity  were  his  object,  or  to  gain 
lasting  fame  if  he  had  chosen  to  build  upon  such  founda- 
tions a  superstructure  of  glorious  deeds  ?  But  not  con- 
tent with  being  prudent  and  politic,  he  must  affect  the 
power  of  being  able  to  deceive  all  mankind  ;  wise  only 


GUSTAVUS  III.  171 

by  halves,  he  must  mistake  cunning  for  sagacity  ;  per- 
verted in  his. taste  by  vanity,  he  must  prefer  outwitting 
men  by  trickery  to  overcoming  them  by  solid  reason  or 
by  fair  designs  ;  preposterously  thinking  that  the  greater 
the  treachery  the  deeper  the  policy,  he  must  overlay  all 
his  schemes  with  superfluous  hypocrisy  and  dissimula- 
tion. Even  his  courage  availed  him  little ;  because 
looking  only  to  the  outside  of  things,  and  provident  only 
for  the  first  step,  he  never  profoundly  formed  his  plans, 
nor  ever  thouglu  of  suiting  his  measures  to  his  means. 
Thus  in  war  he  left  the  reputation  only  of  failure  and 
defeat ;  nor  did  the  fame  which  ho  acquired  by  his  suc- 
cessful political  movements  long  outlive  him,  when  men 
saw  to  how  little  account  he  was  capable  of  turning  the 
povt^er  which  he  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  by 
his  bold  and  managing  spirit.  For  many  years  men 
observing  the  contrast  which  he  presented  to  other 
princes  in  his  personal  demeanour,  and  dazzled  with  the 
success  of  his  political  enterprise,  lavished  their  admira- 
tion upon  him  with  little  stint,  and  less  reflection ;  nor 
would  they,  had  his  dominions  been  more  extensive,  and 
his  actions  performed  on  a  less  confined  theatre,  have 
hesitated  in  bestowing  upon  him  the  title  of  "  Great," 
with  which  they  are  wont  to  reward  their  worst  ene- 
mies for  their  worst  misdeeds,  and  to  seduce  sovereigns 
into  the  paths  of  tyranny  and  war.  But  he  outlived 
the  fame  which  he  had  early  acquired.  To  his  victories 
over  the  aristocracy  at  home  succeeded  his  defeats  by 
the  enemy  abroad.  It  was  discovered  that  a  prince 
may  be  more  clever  and  accomplished  than  others, 
without  being  more  useful  to  his  people,  or  more  capa- 
ble of  performing  sjreat  actions ;  and  the  wide  difterence 
between  genius  and  ability  was  never  more  marked  than 
in  him.  By  degrees  the  eyes  even  of  his  contempora- 
ries were  opened  to  the  truth ;  and  then  the  vile  arts  of 
treachery,  in  which  it  was  his  unnatural  pride  to  excel, 
became    as  hateful  to  men  of  sound  principles  as  his 


172  GUSTAVUS  III. 

preposterous  relish  for  such  bad  distinction  was  disgust- 
ful to  men  of  correct  taste  and  right  feelings.  Of  all  his 
reputation,  at  one  time  sufficiently  brilliant,  not  any  ves- 
tige now  remains  conspicuous  enough  to  tempt  others 
into  his  crooked  paths ;  and  the  recollections  associated 
with  his  story,  while  they  bring  contempt  upon  his  name, 
are  only  fitted  to  warn  men  against  the  shame  that  at- 
tends lost  opportunities  and  prostituted  talents. 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 


A  GREAT  contrast  in  every  respect  to  Gustavus  HI. 
was  presented  by  another  Prince  who  flourished  in  the 
same  age,  Joseph  JI.     In  almost  all  qualities,  both  of 
the   understanding  and    the  heart,  he  diflered  widely 
from  his  contemporary  of  the  North.     With  abilities 
less  shining  though  more  solid,  and  which  he  had  cul- 
tivated   more    diligently ;    with    far    more   information 
acquired  somewhat  after  the  laborious  German  fashion; 
with  so  little  love  for  trick  or  value  for  his  own  address, 
that  he  rather  plumed  himself  on  being  a  stranger  to 
those  arts,  and  on  being  defective  in  the  ordinary  pro- 
vision of  cunning  which   the  deceitful  atmosphere  of 
courts  renders  almost  necessary  as  a  protection  against 
circumvention  ;  with  ambition  to  excel  but  not  confined 
to  love  of  military  glory ;  with  no  particular  wish   to 
exalt  his  own  authority,  nor  any  disposition  to  acquire 
fame  by  extending  the  happiness  of  his  people — although 
presenting  to  the  vulgar  gaze  a  less  striking  object  than 
Gustavus,  he  was   in  all   important  particulars  a  far 
more  considerable  person,  and  wanted  but  little  from 
nature,  though  certainly  much  from  fortune,  to  have 
left  behind  him  a  great  and  lasting  reputation.     That 
which  he  did  want  was,  however,  sutBcient  to  destroy 
all  chance  of  realising  an  eminent  station  among  the 
lights  of  the  world:  for  his  judgment  was  defective; 
he  was  more  restless  than  persevering ;  and  though  not 
at  all  wanting  in  powers  of  labour,  yet  he  often  thought 
of  royal  roads  to  his  object,  and  leaving  those  steep 
and  circuitous  routes  which  nature  has  formed  along 
the  ascents,  would  fall  into  what  has  been  termed  by 
Lord  Bacon,  the  paradox  of  power — desiring  to  attain 


176  THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

the  end  without  submitting  to  use  the  means.  Success 
in  such  circumstances  was  hopeless;  and  accident  con- 
tributed largely  to  multiply  and  exaggerate  his  failures, 
insomuch  that  the  unhappy  monarch  on  his  deaih-bed 
exclaimed  in  the  anguish  of  his  spirit,  that  his  epitaph 
should  be — "  Here  lies  Joseph,  who  was  unsuccessful 
in  all  his  undertakings."  Men,  looking  to  the  event, 
rated  him  very  far  below  his  real  value,  and  gave  him 
credit  for  none  of  the  abilities  and  few  of  the  virtues 
which  he  really  possessed.  Nothing  can  be  more  unjust, 
more  foolish  in  itself  or  more  mischievous  in  its  conse- 
quences, than  the  almost  universal  determination  of 
the  world  to  reckon  nothing  in  a  prince  of  any  value 
but  brilliant  talents,  and  to  account  worth  of  little  avail 
in  that  station  in  which  it  is  of  the  most  incalculable 
importance.  Nay,  let  a  royal  life  be  ever  so  much 
disfigured  with  crime,  if  it  have  nothing  mean,  that  is, 
if  its  vices  be  all  on  a  great  scale,  and  especially  if  it 
be  covered  with  military  successes,  little  of  the  repro- 
bation due  to  its  demerits  will  be  expressed,  as  if  the 
greatest  of  public  enormities,  the  excesses  of  ambition, 
effected  a  composition  for  the  worst  of  private  faults. 
Even  our  James  I.  is  the  object  of  contempt  not  so 
much  for  the  vile  life  he  led  as  for  his  want  of  spirit  and 
deficiency  in  warlike  accomplishments  ;  and,  if  the  only 
one  of  his  failings  which  was  beneficial  to  his  subjects 
had  not  existed  in  his  character,  his  name  would  have 
descended  to  us  with  general  respect  among  the  Harrys 
and  the  Edwards  of  an  earlier  age. 

It  was  in  some  degree  unfortunate  for  the  fame  of 
Joseph  that  he  came  after  so  able  and  so  celebrated  a 
personage  as  his  mother,  Maria  Theresa.  But  this 
circumstance  also  proved  injurious  to  his  education : 
for  the  Empress  Queen  was  resolved  that  her  son, 
even  when  clothed  by  the  Election  of  the  Germanic 
Diet  with  the  Imperial  title,  should  exercise  none  of 
its  prerogatives  during  her  life ;  and  long  after  he  had 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH.  177 

arrived  at  man's  estate,  he  was  held  in  a  kind  of  tute- 
lage by  that  bold  and  politic  Princess.     Having  there- 
fore finished  his  studies,  and  perceiving  that  at  home  he 
was  destined  to  remain  a  mere  cipher  while  she  ruled, 
he  went  abroad,  and  travelled  into  those  dominions  in 
Italy  nominally  his  own,  but  where  he  had   no  more 
concern  with  the  government  than  the  meanest  of  his 
subjects ;  and  from   thence  he  visited  the  rest  of  the 
Italian  states.     An  eager,  but  an  indiscriminate  thirst 
of  knowledge   distinguished    him    wherever   he   went; 
there  was  no  subject  which  he  would  not  master,  no 
kind  of  information  which   he   would  not  amass ;   nor 
were  any  details  too  minute  for  him  to  collect.    Nothing 
can  be  more  praiseworthy  than  a  sovereign  thus  acquaint- 
ing himself  thoroughly  with  the  concerns  of  the  people 
over   whom   he    is    called    to    rule ;    and   the   undistin- 
guishing  ardour  of  his  studies  can  lead  to  little  other 
harm  than   the  losing  time,  or  preventing  the  acquisi- 
tion of  important  matters   by  distracting  the  attention 
to  trifles.     But  his  activity  was  as  indiscriminate  as  his 
inquiries,  and  he  both  did  some  harm  and  exposed  him- 
self to  much  ridicule  by  the  conduct  which  it  prompted. 
He  must  needs  visit  the  convents,  and  inspect  the  work 
of  the  nuns ;  nor  rest  satisfied  until  he  imposed  on  those 
whose  needle  moved  less  quickly  than  suitod  his  notions 
of  female  industry,  the  task  of  making  shirts  for  the 
soldiery.     So  his  ambition  was  equally  undistinguishing 
and  unreflecting ;  nor  did  he  consider  that  the  things 
which  it  led  him  to  imitate  might  well  be  void  of  all 
merit  in  him,  though  highly  important  in  those  whose 
example  he  was  following  to  the  letter  regardless  of  the 
spirit.     Thus,  because  the  Emperor  of  China  encourages 
agriculture  by  driving,  at  some  solemn  festival,  a  plough 
with  the   hands  that  holds  at  other  times  the  celestial 
sceptre,  the  Emperor  of  Germany  must  needs  plough 
a  ridge  in  the  Milanese,  where  of  course  a  monument 
was  erected  to  perpetuate  this  act  of  princely  folly. 


178  THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

But  of  all  his  admirations,  that  which  he  entertained 
for  the  great  enemy  of  his  house,  his  mother,  and  his 
crown,  was  the  most  preposterous.  During  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  which  threatened  the  existence  of  all  three, 
he  would  fain  have  served  a  campaign  under  Frederic  II.; 
and  although  he  might  probably  have  had  the  decency 
to  station  himself  on  the  northern  frontier  where  Russia 
was  the  enemy,  yet  no  one  can  wonder  at  the  Empress 
Queen  prohibiting  her  son  from  taking  the  recreation 
of  high  treason  to  amuse  his  leisure  hours,  and  occu- 
pying his  youth  and  exposing  his  person  in  shaking  the 
throne  which  he  was  one  day  to  fill.  At  length,  how- 
ever, the  day  arrived  which  he  had  so  long  eagerly 
panted  for,  when  he  was  to  become  personally  ac- 
quainted with  the  idol  of  his  devotion.  His  inflexible 
parent  had,  in  1766,  prevented  them  from  meeting  at 
Torgau ;  but  three  years  after  they  had  an  interview  of 
some  days  at  Neiss  in  Silesia,  the  important  province 
which  Frederic  had  wrested  from  the  Austrian  crown. 
The  veteran  monarch  has  well  conveyed  an  idea  of  his 
admirer  in  one  of  his  historical  works,  which  indeed 
contains  very  few  sketches  of  equal  merit : — ■"  II  afiectoit 
une  franchise  qui  lui  sembloit  naturelle ;  son  caractere 
aimable  marquoit  de  la  gaiete  jointe  a  la  vivacite;  mais 
Qvec  le  desir  d'apprendre,  il  n'avoit  pas  la  patience  de 
s'instruire."  And  certainly  this  impatience  of  the  means, 
proportioned  to  an  eagerness  for  the  end,  was  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  his  whole  character  and  conduct 
through  life,  from  the  most  important  to  the  most  trivial 
of  his  various  pursuits. 

Although  Frederic  had  a  perfect  right  to  look  down 
upon  Joseph  in  this  view  as  well  as  in  many  others,  and 
although  there  can  be  no  sort  of  comparison  between 
the  two  men  in  general,  yet  is  it  equally  certain  that  in 
one  most  important  particular  a  close  resemblance  may 
be  traced  between  them,  and  the  same  defect  may  be 
found  marring  the  projects  of  both.     Their  internal  ad- 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH.  179 

ministration  was  marked  with  the  same  intermeddling 
and  controlling  spirit,  than  which  a  more  mischievous 
character  cannot  belong  to  any  system  of  rule.     It  is 
indeed  an  error  into  which  all  sovereigns  and  all  minis- 
ters are  very  apt  to  fall,  when  they  avoid  the  opposite, 
perhaps   safer,  extreme  of  indifierence  to  their  duties. 
Nor  was  he  the  more  likely  to  steer  a  middle  course, 
whose  power  had  no  limits ;  whose  ideas  of  government 
were  taken  from  the  mechanical  discipline  of  an  army; 
and  whose  abilities  so  far  exceeded  the  ordinary  lot  of 
royal    understandings,  that    he    seemed    to  have  some 
grounds  for   thinking  himself  capable  of  every  thing, 
while  he  despised  the  talents  of  every  body  else.     Yet 
must  it  be  allowed,  that  if  all  other  proofs  were  want- 
ing, this  one  undoubted  imperfection  in  Frederic's  nature 
is  a  sufficient  ground  for  ranking  him  among  inferior 
minds,  and  for  denying  him  those  higher  qualities  of  the 
understanding  which  render  such  faculties  beneficial,  as 
he  unquestionably  possessed.     A  truly  great  genius  will 
be  the  first  to  prescribe  limits  for  its  own  exertions; 
to  discover  the  sphere  within  which  its  powers  must  be 
concentrated  in  order  to  work,  beyond  which  their  dif- 
fusion can  only  uselessly  dazzle.     But  this  was  a  know- 
ledge and  a  self-command,  that  Frederic  never  attained. 
Though  the  ignorance  and  weakness  which  he  displayed, 
in  the  excessive  government  of  his  kingdom,  were  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  his  military  glory,  or  partially  covered 
by  his  cleverness  and  activity,  they  require  only  to  be 
viewed  apart,  in  order  to  excite  as  much  ridicule  as  was 
ever  bestowed  on  the  Emperor  Joseph,  whose  system  of 
administration  indeed  greatly  resembled  his  neighbour's, 
unless  that  he  had  more  leisure  to  show  his  good  inten- 
tions by  his  blunders,  and  was  guided  by  better  princi- 
ples in  the   prosecution  of  his  never-ending  schemes. 
Like  him,  the  Prussian  ruler  conceived  that  it  was  his 
duly  to  be  eternally  at  work  ;  to  take  every  concern  in 
his  dominions  upon  his  own  shoulders  ;  seldom  to  think 


180  THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

men's  interest  safe  when  committed  to  themselves,  much 
less  to  delegate  to  his  ministers  any  portion  of  the  super- 
intending power,  which  must  yet  be  every  where  pre- 
sent and  constantly  on  the  watch.  Both  of  these  princes 
knew  enough  of  detail  to  give  them  a  relish  for  affairs ; 
but  they  were  always  wasting  their  exemplary  activity 
in  marring  the  concerns  which  belonged  not  to  their  de- 
partment ;  and  extending  their  knowledge  of  other  peo- 
ple's trades,  instead  of  forming  an  acquaintance  with 
their  own.  While  other  monarchs  were  making  a  busi- 
ness of  pleasure,  they  made  a  pleasure  of  business ; 
but,  utterly  ignorant  how  much  of  their  professional 
duties  resolved  into  a  wise  choice  of  agents,  with  all 
their  industry  and  wit,  they  were  only  mismanaging  a 
part  of  the  work,  and  leaving  the  rest  undone ;  so  that 
it  may  fairly  be  questioned  whether  their  dominions 
would  not  have  gained  by  the  exchange,  had  their  lives 
been  squandered  in  the  seraglio,  and  their  afiairs  en- 
trusted to  cabinets  of  more  quiet  persons  with  more  or- 
dinary understandings. 

But  although  these  two  eminent  men  were  equally 
fond  of  planning  and  regulating,  as  they  indulged  their 
propensity  in  different  circumstances,  so  their  schemes 
were  not  pursued  in  the  same  manner,  and  have  cer- 
tainly been  attended  with  different  results.  Joseph  was 
a  legislator  and  a  projector.  From  the  restlessness  of 
his  spirit,  and  the  want  of  pressing  afiairs  to  employ  his 
portion  of  talent,  his  measures  were  often  rather  busy 
and  needless,  than  seriously  hurtful ;  and  as  the  con- 
ception of  a  plan  resulted  from  his  activity  and  idle- 
ness, he  was  still  vacant  and  restless  after  the  steps  had 
been  taken  for  its  execution,  and  generally  strangled  it 
by  his  impatience  to  witness  the  fruits  of  his  wisdom ; 
like  the  child  who  plants  a  bean,  and  plucks  it  up  when 
it  has  scarcely  sprouted,  to  see  hov/  it  is  growing. 
Thus  it  happened,  that  many  of  his  innovations  were 
done  away  by  himself,  while  others  had  no  tendency  to 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH.  181 

operate  any  change.  Those  which  were  opposed,  he  only 
pushed  to  a  certain  length,  and  then  knew  how  to  yield, 
after  mischief  had  been  done  by  the  struggle ;  but  few 
of  thenn  survived  his  own  day  ;  chiefly  such  as  antici- 
pated, by  a  slight  advance,  the  natural  course  of  events. 
Frederic,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  placed  in  easy 
circumstances ;  he  was  active  from  necessity,  as  much 
as  from  vanity ;  he  was  an  adventurer,  whose  projects 
must  be  turned  to  some  account ;  not  an  idle  amateur, 
who  can  amuse  himself  by  forming  a  new  scheme  after 
the  others  have  failed.  Although  then,  like  Joseph,  he 
could  afford  his  designs  little  time  to  ripen,  yet  he  con- 
trived to  force  something  out  of  them  by  new  applications 
of  power;  thus  bringing  to  a  premature  conclusion  ope- 
rations in  their  own  nature  violent  and  untimely.  Hence 
his  necessities,  like  his  rival's  idle  impatience,  allowed 
his  plans  no  chance  of  coming  to  perfection ;  but  while 
Joseph  destroyed  the  scheme  of  yesterday  to  make  a 
new  one,  Frederic  carried  it  forcibly  into  an  imperfect 
execution  before  it  was  well  laid.  Add  to  this,  that  the 
power  of  the  latter  being  more  absolute,  and  of  a  descrip- 
tion the  best  adapted  for  enforcing  detailed  commands,  he 
was  better  enabled  to  carry  through  his  regulating  and  in- 
terfering plans  against  whatever  opposition  they  might 
encounter,  while  his  superior  firmness  of  character,  and 
his  freedom  from  the  various  checks  which  principle  or 
feeling  imposed  upon  the  Austrian  monarch,  precluded 
all  escape  from  the  rigour  of  his  administration  by  any 
other  than  fraudulent  means.  Thus,  the  consequences  of 
his  too  much  governing,  of  his  miserable  views  in  finance, 
and  of  his  constant  errors  in  the  principles  of  commer- 
cial legislation,  are  to  be  traced  at  this  day  through  the 
various  departments  of  the  Prussian  states.  Nor  can  it 
be  asserted  in  the  present  instance,  that  the  powers  of 
individual  interest  have  sufficed  to  produce  their  natural 
effects  upon  human  industry  in  spite  of  the  shackles  by 
which  it  has  been  fettered  and  cramped. 

VOL.  II.  16 


182  THK  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

The  intercourse  between  these  two  sovereigns  which 
took  place  at  Neiss,  in  1769,  was  not  their  only  meet- 
ing;  they  had  another  the  year  after  at  Neustadt;  and 
here,  if  ever,  the  remark  of  Voltaire  proved  correct, 
"  that  the  meetings  of  Sovereigns  are  perilous  to  their 
subjects  ;"  for  here  was  arranged  that  execrable  crime 
against  the  rights  of  men  and  of  nations,  which  has 
covered  the  memory  of  its  perpetrators  with  incompa- 
rably less  infamy  than  they  deserved,  the  Partition  of 
Poland.  Although  Joseph's  mother  was  still  alive  and 
suffered  him  to  share  none  of  her  authority,  yet  this  ne- 
gotiation, in  which  he  undeniably  was  engaged,  deprives 
him  of  all  pretext  for  withdrawing  from  his  portion  of 
the  disgrace  which  so  justly  covers  the  parties  to  that 
foul  transaction. 

It  is  certain,  however,  and  it  is  a  melancholy  truth, 
that  this  abominable  enterprise  is  the  only  one  of 
all  the  Emperor's  undertakings  that  ever  succeeded. 
His  less  guilty  attempt  in  Belgium,  his  harmless 
changes  in  Austria,  his  projects  of  useful  reform  in 
Italy,  all  failed  and  failed  signally,  for  the  most  part 
through  the  careless  and  unreflecting  manner  in  which 
he  formed  his  plans,  and  his  want  of  patience  in  allow- 
ing time  for  their  execution.  His  absurd  fancy  of 
being  crowned  King  of  Hungary  at  Vienna,  instead  of 
Presburg,  and  transporting  the  regalia  out  of  the  coun- 
try, without  the  possibility  of  elTecting  any  good  pur- 
pose, offended  the  national  pride  of  the  Hungarians, 
and  roused  their  suspicions  of  further  designs  against 
their  rights  to  such  a  pitch,  that  for  the  rest  of  his  reign 
he  had  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  those  upon  whose 
protection  his  mother  had  thrown  herself  in  her  extre- 
mity, and  who  had  sworn  "  To  die  for  their  King  Maria 
Theresa."  His  Flemish  reforms,  and  indeed  his  attempts 
upon  the  liberties  of  the  Flemings,  ended  in  exciting  an 
open  rebellion,  which  convulsed  the  Netherlands  at  the 
time  of  his  death.     In  a  far  nobler  object  his  steadiness 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH.  183 

failed  as  usual,  and  his  ill-digested  and  rash  innovation 
rather  confirmed  than  extirpated  the  evil  he  wished  to 
destroy.  He  designed  to  suppress  the  Monasteries,  to 
prevent  Appeals  to  Rome,  and  to  retain  the  power  of 
Ordination  and  deprivation  within  the  country.  But  he 
proceeded  in  so  inconsiderate  a  manner  as  to  raise  uni- 
versal alarm  among  all  classes  of  the  Clergy,  and  even 
to  make  the  Pope  undertake  a  journey  from  Rome  with 
the  view  of  turning  him  aside  from  his  projects,  by 
showing  their  dangerous  consequences.  A  courteous  re- 
ception was  all  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  received  ;  and  after 
his  return  to  Italy,  the  Emperor  rashly  abolished  the 
Diocesan  Seminaries,  reserving  only  five  or  six  for  the 
whole  of  his  vast  dominions  ;  new  modelled  the  limits 
of  the  dioceses,  and  altered  the  whole  law  of  marriage, 
granting,  for  the  first  time  in  a  Catholic  country,  the 
liberty  of  divorce.  He  removed  at  the  same  time  the 
images  from  the  churches,  to  show  that  he  could,  in 
trifling  as  well  as  graver  matters,  pursue  the  course  of 
premature  innovation,  and  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the 
great  rule  of  practical  wisdom  in  government,  which 
forbids  us  to  hurt  strong  and  general  feelings  where  no 
adequate  purpose  is  to  be  served,  how  trifling  or  absurd 
soever  the  subject  matter  may  be  to  which  these  feelings 
relate.  The  removal  of  images  however  was  far  from 
the  most  trifling  of  the  details  into  which  he  thrust  his 
improving  hand.  He  wearied  out  the  clergy  as  well  as 
their  flocks  with  innumerable  regulations  touching  fasts, 
processions,  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  every  thing,  as 
has  been  well  observed,  with  which  the  civil  power  has 
the  least  right  to  meddle,  and,  it  might  be  added,  every 
thing  the  most  beneath  a  Sovereign's  regard ;  so  that 
Frederic  used  not  unhappily  to  speak  of  him  as  his 
"brother  the  Sexton"  {monfrere  h  Sacristain).  Every 
one  knows  how  such  freaks  of  power,  ihe  growth  of  a 
little  mind,  torment  and  irritate  their  objects  even  more 
than  they  lower  the  reputation  and  weaken  the  authority 
of  their  authors. 


184  THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

Having  formerly,  with  a  restlessness  so  foolish  as  in  his 
position  to  be  almost  criminal,  chosen  the  moment  of  the 
whole  of  his  people  being  flung  into  consternation  by  his 
measures,  as  the  fittest  opportunity  for  going  abroad 
upon  a  tour  through  France,  where  he  passed  some 
months  in  envying  all  he  saw,  and  being  mortified  by 
its  superiority  to  his  own  possessions,  novelty  being  no 
cause  of  this  journey,  for  he  had  been  all  over  that  fine 
country  four  years  before — so  now,  after  having  refused 
the  Pope's  request,  and  proceeded  still  more  rapidly  in 
his  ecclesiastical  changes  since  the  pontifical  visit,  he 
chose  to  return  it  immediately  after  he  had  given  this 
offence;  and  he  passed  his  time  at  Rome  in  vainly  en- 
deavouring to  obtain  the  co-operation  of  Spain  with  his 
project  for  entirely  throwing  off  all  allegiance  to  the 
Holy  See.  A  few  years  aftei',  this  wandering  Emperor 
repaired  to  Russia,  and  accompanied  Catherine  on  her 
progress  through  the  southern  parts  of  her  empire.  Here 
he  met  with  a  sovereign  who  resembled  him  in  one  point 
and  no  more ;  she  was  devoured  by  the  same  restless 
passion  for  celebrity,  and  in  her  domestic  administra- 
tion undertook  every  thing  to  finish  nothing,  how  effect- 
ively soever  she  might  accomplish  the  worser  objects 
of  her  criminal  ambition  abroad.  A  witty  remark  of  his 
connected  with  this  weakness  is  recorded,  and  proves 
sufficiently  that  he  could  mai'k  in  another  what  he  was 
unable  to  correct  in  himself  She  had  laid  the  first 
stone  of  a  city,  to  be  called  by  her  name,  and  she  re- 
quested him  to  lay  the  second.  "  I  have  begun  and 
finished,"  said  he,  "  a  great  work  with  the  Empress. 
She  laid  the  first  stone  of  a  city  and  I  laid  the  last,  all 
in  one  day." 

His  excessive  admiration  of  Frederic,  combined  w^th 
his  thirst  of  military  glory,  in  the  war  of  the  Bavarian 
succession  in  1778,  had  the  effect  of  neutralising  each 
other.  He  preferred  corresponding  to  fighting  with 
his  adversary,  who  called   it  a  campaign  of  the  pen. 


THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH.  185 

Under  the  mediation  of  France  peace  was  speedily  re- 
stored, after  an  active  and  vigorous  interchange  of  let- 
ters for  some  months,  and  with  no  other  result.  But  the 
war  with  the  Turks,  into  which  Catherine  inveigled  him, 
was  of  a  very  difibrent  character.  With  them  no  written 
compositions  could  produce  any  eli'ects ;  and  a  series  of 
disasters  ensued,  which  ended  in  the  enemy  menacing 
Vienna  itself,  after  overrunning  all  Lower  Hungary. 
It  was  in  vain  that  he  endeavoured  to  rally  his  defeated 
troops,  or  win  back  victory  to  his  standard  by  the  most 
indiscriminate  severity ;  cashiering  officers  by  the  pla- 
toon, and  shooting  men  by  the  regiment,  until  at  length 
old  Marshal  Laudohn  came  forth  from  his  retirement, 
and  the  men,  animated  by  the  sight  of  their  ancient 
chief,  repulsed  the  enemy,  resumed  the  offensive,  and 
forced  Belgrade  to  capitulate  without  a  siege.  At  this 
critical  moment,  and  ere  yet  he  could  taste  the  pleasure, 
to  him  so  novel,  of  success,  death  closed  his  eyes  upon 
the  ruin  of  his  affairs  in  Belgium,  their  inextricable  em- 
barrassment at  home,  the  death  of  a  sister-in-law  (first 
wife  of  Leopold),  to  whom  he  was  tenderly  attached, 
and  the  unwonted,  perhaps  unexpected,  gleam  of  pros- 
perity in  the  Turkish  campaign.  He  died  in  the  flower 
of  his  age,  and  almost  at  the  summit  of  the  confusion 
created  by  his  restless  folly,  a  sad  instance  how  much 
mischief  a  prince  may  do  to  others,  and  how  great  vexa- 
tion inflict  upon  himself,  by  attempting  in  mediocrity  of 
resources  things  which  only  a  great  capacity  can  hope 
to  execute. 

The  volume  which  records  the  transactions  of  states- 
men, often  suggests  the  remark  that  the  success  of 
mediocrity,  both  in  public  and  in  private  life,  affords 
a  valuable  lesson  to  the  world,  a  lesson  the  more  exten- 
sively useful,  because  the  example  is  calculated  to  operate 
upon  a  far  more  enlarged  scale  than  the  feats  of  rare 
endowments.  In  private  individuals,  moderate  talents, 
however  misused  by  disproportioned  ambition,  can  pro- 

16* 


186  THE  EMPEROR  JOSEPH. 

duce  little  harm,  except  in  exposing  the  folly  and  pre- 
sumption of  their  possessors.  But  in  princes,  moderate 
talents,  unaccompanied  with  discretion  and  modesty,  are 
calculated  to  sprend  the  greatest  misery  over  whole  na- 
tions. The  pursuit  of  renown,  when  confined  to  malad- 
ministration at  home,  is  extremely  mischievous;  leading 
to  restless  love  of  change  for  change's  sake,  attempts  to 
acquire  celebrity  by  undertakings  which  are  above  the 
reach  of  him  who  makes  them,  and  which  involve  the 
community  in  the  consequences  of  their  failure.  But 
the  fear  always  is,  that  this  restless  temper,  unsustained 
by  adequate  capacity  may  lead  to  indulging  in  the  Great 
Sport  of  Kings,  and  that  wars,  even  when  successful 
most  hurtful  to  the  state,  will  be  waged,  without  any  fair 
chance  of  avoiding  discomfiture  and  disgrace.  Hence 
a  greater  curse  can  hardly  light  upon  any  people  than 
to  be  governed  by  a  prince  in  whom  disproportioned 
ambition,  or  preposterous  vanity,  is  only  supported  by 
the  moderate  talents  which,  united  to  sound  principles, 
and  under  the  control  of  a  modest  nature,  might  consti- 
tute their  safety  and  their  happiness.  For  it  is  altoge- 
ther undeniable  that,  considering  the  common  failings  of 
princes,  the  necessary  defects  of  their  education,  the  in- 
evitable tendency  of  their  station  to  engender  habits  of 
self-indulgence,  and  the  proneness  which  they  all  feel, 
when  gifted  with  a  superior  capacity,  to  seek  dominion 
or  fame  by  martial  deeds,  there  is  far  more  safety  in 
nations  being  ruled  by  sovereigns  of  humble  talents,  if 
these  are  only  accompanied  with  an  ambition  propor- 
tionably  moderate. 


THE  EMPRESS   CATHERINE. 


THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 


The  two  male  conspirators  against  the  liberties  of 
mankind,  the  rights  of  nations,  the  peace  of  the  world, 
have  now  been  painted,  but  in  colours  far  more  subdued 
than  the  natural  hues  of  their  crimes.  It  remains  that  the 
most  profligate  of  the  three  should  be  portrayed,  and 
she  a  woman  ! — but  a  woman  in  whom  the  lust  of  power 
united  with  the  more  vulgar  profligacy  of  our  kind,  had 
efiaced  all  traces  of  the  softer  nature  that  marks  the 
sex,  and  lelt  an  image  of  commanding  talents  and  pro- 
digious firmness  of  soul,  the  capacities  which  constitute 
a  great  character,  blended  with  unrelenting  fierceness 
of  disposition,  unscrupulous  proneness  to  fraud,  unre- 
strained indulgence  of  the  passions,  all  the  weakness 
and  all  the  wickedness  which  can  debase  the  worst  of 
the  human  race. 

The  Princess  Sophia  of  Anhall  Zerbst,  one  of  the 
smallest  of  the  petty  principalities  in  which  Northern 
Germany  abounds,  was  married  to  Peter  III.,  nephew 
and  heir-presumptive  to  the  Russian  crown,  and  she  took 
the  name  of  Catherine,  according  to  the  custom  of  that 
barbarous  nation.  The  profligacy  of  Elizabeth,  then  on 
the  throne  of  the  Czars,  was  little  repugnant  to  the 
crapulous  life  which  her  future  successor  led,  or  to  his 
consort  following  their  joint  example.  The  young 
bride,  accordingly,  soon  fell  into  the  debauched  habits  of 
the  court,  and  she  improved  upon  them  ;  for  having  more 
than  once  changed  the  accomplices  of  her  adulterous 
indulgences,  almost  as  swiftly  as  Elizabeth  did,  she  had 
her  husband  murdered  by  her  paramour,  that  is,  the 
person  for  the  time  holding  the  office  of  paramour : 
and   having  gained  over  the   guard  and  the  mob  of 


190  THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

Petersburgli,  she  usurped  the  crown  to  which  she  could 
pretend  no  earthly  title.  To  refute  the  reports  that 
were  current  and  to  satisfy  all  inquiries  as  to  the  cause 
of  Peter's  death  she  ordered  his  body  to  be  exposed  to 
public  view,  and  stationed  guards  to  prevent  any  one 
from  approaching  near  enough  to  see  the  livid  hue 
which  the  process  of  strangling  had  spread  over  his 
features. 

The  reign  thus  happily  begun,  was  continued  in  the 
constant  practice  of  debauchery  and  the  occasional  com- 
mission of  convenient  murder.  Lover  after  lover  was 
admitted  to  the  embraces  of  the  Messalina  of  the  North, 
until  soldiers  of  the  guards  were  employed  in  fatiguing 
an  appetite  which  could  not  be  satiated.  Sometimes 
the  favourite  of  the  day  would  be  raised  to  the  con- 
fidence and  the  influence  of  prime  minister ;  but  after  a 
while  he  ceased  to  please  as  the  paramour,  though  he 
retained  his  ministerial  functions.  One  of  the  princes 
of  the  blood  having  been  pitched  on  by  a  party  to  be 
their  leader,  was  thrown  into  prison;  and  w^hen  the  zeal 
of  that  party  put  forward  pretences  to  the  throne  on  his 
behalf,  the  imperial  Jezebel  had  him  murdered  in  his 
dungeon  as  the  shortest  way  of  terminating  all  contro- 
versy on  his  account,  and  all  uneasiness.  The  medio- 
crity of  her  son  Paul's  talents  gave  her  no  umbrage, 
especially  joined  to  the  eccentricity  of  his  nature,  and 
his  life  was  spared.  Had  he  given  his  tigress  mother 
a  moment's  alarm,  he  would  speedily  have  followed  his 
unhappy  father  to  the  regions  where  profligacy  and  par- 
ricide are  unknown. 

Although  Catherine  was  thus  abandoned  in  all  her 
indulgences  and  unscrupulous  in  choosing  the  means  of 
gratifying  her  ambition  especially,  yet  did  she  not  give 
herself  up  to  either  the  one  kind  of  vice  or  the  other, 
either  to  cruelty  or  to  lust,  with  the  weakness  which  in 
little  minds  lends  those  abominable  propensities  an  en- 
tire and  undivided  control.     Her  lovers  never  were  her 


THE  EMPRESS  CRTHERINE.  101 

rulers  :  her  licentiousness  interfered  not  with  her  public 
conduct;  her  cruelties  were  not  numerous  and  wanton; 
not  the  result  of  caprice  or  the  occupation  of  a  wicked 
and  malignant  nature,  but  the  expedients,  the  unJLfsti- 
fiable,  the  detestable  expedients,  to  which  she  had  re- 
course when  a  great  end  was  to  be  attained.  The 
historian  who  would  fully  record  the  life  of  the  Czarina, 
must  deform  his  page  with  profligacy  and  with  crimes 
that  resemble  the  disgusting  annals  of  the  Caesars ; 
but  the  blot  would  be  occasional  only,  and  the  darkness 
confined  to  a  few  pages,  instead  of  blackening  the 
whole  volume,  as  it  does  that  of  Tacitus  or  Suetonius : 
for  she  had  far  too  great  a  mind  to  be  enslaved  by 
her  passions,  or  merely  mischievous  in  her  feelings, 
although  the  gusts  of  one  carried  her  away,  and 
what  of  the  other  was  amiable,  had  far  too  little 
force  to  resist  the  thirst  for  dominion,  which,  with  the 
love  of  indulgence,  formed  the  governing  motive  of  her 
conduct. 

Her  capacity  was  of  an  exalted  order.  Her  judg- 
ment was  clear  and  sure  ;  her  apprehension  extraor- 
dinarily quick ;  her  sagacity  penetrating ;  her  pro- 
vidence and  circumspection  comprehensive*  To  fear, 
hesitation,  vacillation,  she  was  an  utter  stranger ;  and 
the  adoption  of  a  design  was  with  her  its  instant  execu- 
tion. But  her  plan  differed  widely  from  those  of  her 
companion  Joseph  II.,  or  even  of  her  neighbour  Gus- 
tavus  III.  They  resembled  far  more  those  of  her  long- 
headed accomplice  of  Prussia.  They  were  deeply  laid 
in  general,  and  for  the  most  part  well  digested  ;  formed 
as  to  their  object  with  no  regard  to  principle,  but  only 
to  her  aggrandisement  and  glory  ;  framed  as  to  their 
execution  with  no  regard  to  the  rights  or  mercy  for  the 
sufferings  of  her  fellow-creatures.  Over  their  execution 
the  same  dauntless,  reckless,  heartless  feelings  presided  ; 
nor  was  she  ever  to  be  turned  from  her  purpose  by 
difficulties  and  perils,  or  abated  in  her  desires  of  success 


192  THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

by  languor  and  delay,  or  quelled  in  her  course  by  the 
least  rennnant  of  the  humane  feelings  that  mark  the 
softer  sex,  extinct  in  her  bold,  masculine,  and  flinty 
bosom. 

In  one  material  particular,  and  in  the  only  one,  she 
seemed  to  betray  her  original  womanhood,  and  ceased  to 
pursue  the  substance  after  she  had  gone  far  enough  to 
gratify  her  vanity  with  the  shadow  of  outward  appear- 
ances and  to  tickle  her  ears  with  popular  applause.    Her 
military  operations  on  the  side  of  the  east ;  her  attempts 
at  encroachment  upon  Turkey,  whether  by  skilful  nego- 
tiations with  the  Greek  chiefs,  or  warlike  movements 
almost    decisively   successful    against   Constantinople  ;* 
her  measures  in  concert  with  Denmark  against  Sweden, 
and  which  only  the  interposition  of  England  at  Copen- 
hagen in  1788,f  prevented  from  putting  Finland  in  her 
possession ;    her    share    in    the    execrable    Partition   of 
Poland  from  the  beginning  of  that  crime  down  to  its 
consummation    in    1794 — all    these    schemes    of   her 
vigorous   and    daring   policy   formed    a   strange   con- 
trast with  those  ebullitions  of  childish    vanity,  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  cities  in  a  desert,  never  to  be 
finished  nor  even  built  above  the  corner-stone;  or  as- 
sembled upon  her  route  through  the  wastes  of  her  em- 
pire thousands  of  half-naked  savages  and  clothed  them 
with  dresses  to  be  transported  in  the  night  and  serve  the 
next  day's   show,    while   she    was  making   a  progress 
through  her  barren,  unpeopled  domains;  or  made  the 
shells  of  houses  be  raised  one  week  along   the   road 
where  she  was  to  pass,  destined  the  week  after  to  tum- 
ble in  premature  but  inevitable  ruins ;  or  collected  groups 
of  peasants  where  none  could  subsist,  and  had  the  same 
groups  carried  on  in  the  night  to  greet  her  next  day  with 

*  Had  her  admirals  pushed  their  advantages  at  Tchesme,  the  Porte 
was  laid  prostrate  at  her  feet. 

t  Our  ambassador  threatened  to  bombard  Copenhagen  with  an  Eng- 
lish  fleet,  unless  the  Danes  instantly  raised  the  siege  of  Gottenburgh. 


THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE.  193 

another  false  semblance  of  an  impossible  population  in 
another  waste.  Nor  was  there  much  more  reality  in 
her  councils  of  lawgivers  to  prepare  a  Code  for  he*-  vast 
empire,  and  her  instructions,  supposed  to  be  written  by 
herself,  for  guiding  their  deliberations  and  assisting  their 
labours.  But  then  she  had  resolved  to  be  the  Semiramis 
of  the  North ;  she  must  both  be  the  Conqueror  of 
Empires,  the  Founder  of  Cities,  and  the  Giver  of  Laws. 
But  as  it  was  incomparably  more  easy  for  an  absolute 
sovereign  at  the  head  of  forty  millions  of  slave  subjects, 
with  a  vast  impregnable,  almost  unapproachable  domi- 
nion, if  ruled  by  no  principles,  to  subdue  other  countries, 
than  to  improve  her  own,  and  to  extend  the  numbers  of 
her  vassals,  than  to  increase  their  happiness  or  their 
civilisation,  she  failed  in  all  the  more  harmless,  or  bene- 
ficent parts  of  her  schemes,  while  she  unhappily  succeeded 
in  many  of  her  warlike  and  unprincipled  projects  ;  and 
she  easily  rested  satisfied  with  the  name  of  civil  wisdom, 
and  mere  outward  semblance  of  plans  for  internal  im- 
provement, while  she  enjoyed  the  sad  reality  of  territorial 
aggrandisement  through  cruelty  and  violence.  The  court 
she  paid  to  men  of-  letters  obtained  a  prompt  repayment 
in  flattery;  and  they  lavished  upon  her  never-ending, 
never-executed  plans  of  administration  the  praises  to 
which  a  persevering  and  successful  execution  of  them 
would  alone  have  given  her  a  title.  Pleased,  satisfied 
with  these  sounds,  she  thought  no  more  of  the  matter, 
and  her  name  has  come  down  to  our  times,  though 
close  adjoining  her  own,  stript  of  every  title  to  respect 
for  excellence  in  any  one  department  of  civil  wisdom, 
while  her  unprincipled  policy  in  foreign  affairs  has  sur- 
vived her  and  still  afflicts  mankind. 

A  woman  of  her  commanding  talents,  however  had 
other  holds  over  the  favour  of  literary  men  than  the 
patronage  which  her  station  enabled  her  to  dispense. 
Beside  maintaining  a  kind  of  literary  envoy  at  Paris  in 
the  person  of  Grimm,  she  invited  Diderot  to  St.  Peters- 

VOL.  n.  17 


194  THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

burgh,  and  purchased  D'Alembert's  Hbrary :  patronised 
the  illustrious  Euler,  and  gratified  others  of  less  fame  by 
admitting  them  to  the  familiar  society  of  a  great  mo- 
narch :  but  she  also  had  abilities  and  information  enough 
to  relish  their  conversation,  and  to  bear  her  part  in  it 
upon  nearly  equal  terms.  She  had  the  manly  sense,  too, 
so  far  superior  to  the  demeanour  of  Frederic  and  the 
other  spoilt  children  of  royal  nurseries,  that  no  breach 
of  etiquette,  no  unbecoming  familiarity  of  her  lettered 
guests  ever  offended  her  pride,  or  roused  her  official 
dignity  for  an  instant.  Diderot  used  to  go  so  far  in  the 
heat  of  argument  as  to  slap  her  on  the  shoulder  or  knee 
with  the  "  emportemenV  of  a  French  "  savant,"  and  he 
only  excited  a  smile  in  the  well-natured  and  truly  supe- 
rior person  whose  rank  and  even  sex  he  had  for  the 
moment  forgotten.  Her  writings,  too,  are  by  no  means 
despicable ;  but  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  that  any 
work  published  by  an  Empress-regnant  proceeds  from 
her  own  pen  deprives  criticism  of  all  interest  as  con- 
nected with  her  literary  reputation.  The  most  im- 
portant of  her  books,  indeed,  her  Instruction  to  the 
Commission  for  composing  a  Code  of  Laws,  published 
in  1770,  makes  little  or  no  pretension  to  originality,  as 
whatever  it  has  of  value  is  closely  copied  from  the  work 
of  Beccaria.  The  great  variety  of  her  subjects  is  calcu- 
lated to  augment  our  suspicions  that  she  made  books  as 
she  made  war,  by  deputy — by  orders  from  head-quarters, 
Legislation,  history,  travels,  criticism,  dramatic  pieces  of 
various  kinds,  political  and  moral  romances — all  pass 
under  her  name  as  the  occupation  of  her  leisure  hours 
and  the  fruits  of  her  prolific  pen. 

It  would  be  unjust,  however,  to  deny  that  science 
owes  her  important  obligations.  Her  patronage  of  the 
Academy  of  Petersburgh  was  unremitting,  and  it  was  un- 
accompanied by  undue  interference,  the  great  drawback 
on  all  public  patronage  of  letters  or  literary  men,  which 
so  often  more  than  balances  the  benefits  it  is  calculated 


THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE.  195 

to  bestow.  Flourishing  under  her  auspices,  it  gave  to 
the  world  sonne  of  the  most  valuable  of  Euler's  profound 
and  original  researches.  The  journeys  of  Pallas  and 
Gmelin  were  directed  and  supported  by  her,  and  they 
explored  the  hitherto  unknown  i-egions  of  the  Caucasus, 
ascertained  their  resources,  and  described  their  produc- 
tions. Despatched  by  her  orders,  Billings  explored  the 
Eastern,  and  Blumager  the  Northern  Ocean.  Nor  were 
some  beginnings  wanted  under  her  reign  to  establish 
schools  for  teaching  the  more  elementary  branches  of 
knowledge  to  her  untutored  people.* 

Besides  these  worthy  and  useful  works  she  made  some 
little  improvements  upon  the  judicial  and  financial  ad- 
ministration of  her  empire,  and  corrected  a  very  few  of 
the  more  flagrant  abuses,  the  produce  of  a  darker  age, 
which  even  in  Russia  could  hardly  stand  their  ground 
amidst  the  light  of  the  eighteenth  century.  But  the 
fragments  of  her  reforming  or  improving  schemes  which 
alone  have  remained  behind  her,  bear  the  most  incon- 
siderable proportion  to  the  bulk  of  the  designs  them- 
selves ;  and  of  all  the  towns  she  began  to  build,  the 
canals  she  planned,  the  colonies  she  planted,  the  manu- 
factories she  established,  the  legislation  she  chalked  out, 
the  thousand-and-one  institutions  of  charity,  of  learning, 
of  industry,  she  founded,  the  very  names  have  perished, 
and  the  situations  been  buried  in  oblivion,  leaving  only 
the  reputation  to  their  author  of  realising  Joseph's  just 
though  severe  picture  of  a  "Sovereign  who  began  every 
thing  and  finished  nothing." 

On  the  whole,  the  history  of  Princes  affords  few  ex- 
amples of  such  talents  and  such  force  of  character  on  a 
throne  so  diverted  from  all  good  purposes,  and  perverted 
to  the  working  of  so  much  mischief  There  have  been 
few  abler  monarchs  in  any  part  of  the  world.     It  may 

*  The  attention  paid  to  education  at  the  present  day  in  Russia  is  truly 
praiseworthy ;  and  might  make  nations  ashamed  tliat  pretend  to  far 
greater  civility  and  refinement. 


196  THE    EMPRESS   CATHERINE. 


> 


well  be  doubted  if  there  has  been  one  as  bad  in  all  the 
important  particulars  in  which  the  worth  or  the  wicked- 
ness of  rulers  tells  the  most  powerfully  upon  the  happi- 
ness of  the  world. 

The  accidental  circumstance  of  sex  has  sometimes  led 
to  instituting  comparisons  of  Catherine  with  our  Eliza- 
beth ;  but  the  points  of  resemblance  were  few.  Both 
possessed  a  very  strong,  masculine  understanding ;  both 
joined  to  comprehensive  views,  the  firm,  resolution,  with- 
out which  nothing  great  is  ever  achieved  ;  both  united 
a  vehement  love  of  power  with  a  determination  never  to 
brook  their  authority  being  questioned  ;  and  both  were 
prepared,  though  in  very  different  degrees,  to  sacrifice 
unscrupulously  those  whom  they  regarded  as  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  its  gratification.  Whether  Elizabeth  in 
the  place  of  Catherine  might  not  have  become  more 
daring,  and  throwing  off  all  the  restraints  imposed  by 
the  Ecclesiastical  and  Parliamentary  Constitution  of 
her  country,  have  attained  by  open  force  those  ends 
which  she 'was  obliged  to  compass  by  intrigue,  is  a 
matter  of  more  doubtful  consideration.  Certainly  her 
reign  is  sullied  by  none  of  those  atrocious  crimes  which 
cast  so  dark  a  shade  on  the  memory  of  Catherine;  nor 
can  any  comparison  be  fairly  made  between  the 
act  which  approaches  nearest'' the  enormities  of  the 
Northern  Tyrant,  and  even  the  least  of  those  mighty 
transgressions. 

The  passions  that  most  influence  the  sex,  present 
remarkable  points  both  of  contrast  and  of  resemblance 
in  the  kind  of  empire  which  they  exercised  over  these 
great  sovereigns.  The  one  was  the  victim  of  sensual 
propensities,  over  which  she  exercised  no  kind  of  con- 
trol: the  other  carefully  avoided  even  every  appearance 
of  such  excesses.  So  diflferently  were  they  constituted, 
morally  as  well  as  physically,  that  it  is  more  than  doubt- 
ful if  Catherine  ever  felt  the  passion  of  love,  or  Eliza- 
beth that  of  sex,  while  the  latter  was  in  love  with  some 
favourite  or  other  all  her  life,  and  the  existence  of  the 


THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE.  197 

former  was  a  succession  of  the  grossest  amours.  But 
in  this  both  pursued  the  same  course,  that  the  favourite 
of  the  woman  in  neither  case  ever  obtained  any  sway 
over  the  Queen  ;  and  that  the  sensual  appetites  of  the 
one  and  the  tender  sentiments  of  the  other,  were  aUke 
indulged,  without  for  a  moment  breaking  in  upon  the 
scheme  of  their  political  lives. 

Their  accession  to  the  thrones  of  their  respective  king- 
doms was  marked  by  very  different  circumstances ;  the 
one  succeeding  by  inheritance  without  a  possible  objec- 
tion to  her  right,  the  other  usurping  the  crown  without 
the  shadow  of  any  title  at  all.  Yet  the  sovereign  whose 
title  was  indisputable  had  far  more  perils  and  difficulties 
to  encounter  in  defending  her  possession,  than  she  who 
claimed  by  mere  force  in  contempt  of  all  right.  The 
rehgious  differences  which  marshalled  the  English 
people  in  two  bitterly  hostile  divisions,  kept  Elizabeth 
in  constant  anxiety  during  her  whole  reign,  lest  the  dis- 
inclination of  one  class  proving  stronger  against  her 
than  the  favour  of  the  other  in  her  behalf,  attempts  upon 
her  life  or  her  authority  might  subvert  a  throne  founded 
upon  every  ground  of  law,  and  fortified  by  many  years 
of  possession.  Catherine  had  no  sooner  seized  upon 
the  crown  of  the  Czars  than  all  her  difficulties  vanished, 
and  once  only  or  twice,  during  her  reign  of  between 
thirty  and  forty  years,  was  she  ever  molested  by  any 
threats  of  a  competition  for  her  crown.  It  is  due  to  the 
Englishwoman,  that  her  admirable  firmness  and  clemency 
combined  should  be  recorded  in  these  untoward  circum- 
stances. No  alarm  for  her  own  safety  urged  her  to 
adopt  any  cruel  expedients,  or  to  consult  her  security 
by  unlawful  means  ;  nor  did  she  ever  but  once  seek  a 
justification  of  lawless  conduct  in  the  extraordinary  dif- 
ficulties and  even  dangers  of  her  position.  Catherine, 
who  had  walked  to  supreme  power  over  her  husband's 
corpse,  easily  defended  her  sceptre  by  the  same  instru- 
ments which  had  enabled  her  to  grasp  it.     The  single 

17* 


198  THE    EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

instance  in  which  Elizabeth  shed  a  rival's  blood  for  her 
own  safety,  admitted  of  extenuation,  if  it  could  not  be 
justified,  by  the  conspiracy  detected  against  her  life ; 
and  the  times  she  lived  in,  rendering  assassination  peril- 
ous, instead  of  murdering  her  rival  in  a  dungeon,  she  at 
least  brought  her  charges  openly  into  a  court  of  inquiry, 
and  had  her  tried,  judged,  executed,  under  colour  of 
law  before  the  face  of  the  world. 

In  one  thing,  and  in  one  alone,  the  inferiority  of  the 
Englishwoman  to  the  German  must  be  admitted ;  and 
this  arose  from  the  diflerent  circumstances  of  the  two 
Sovereigns,  and  the  feebler  authority  with  which  the 
former  was  invested.  Through  her  whole  reign  she 
was  a  dissembler,  a  pretender,  a  hypocrite.  Whether 
in  steering  her  crooked  way  between  rival  sects,  or  in 
accommodating  herself  to  conflicting  factions,  or  in  pur- 
suing the  course  she  had  resolved  to  follow  amidst  the 
various  opinions  of  the  people,  she  ever  displayed  a  de- 
gree of  cunning'  and  faithlessness  which  it  is  impossible 
to  contemplate  without  disgust.  But  if  there  be  any  one 
passage  of  her  life  which  calls  forth  this  sentiment  more 
than  another,  it  is  her  vile  conduct  respecting  the  execu- 
tion of  Mary  Stuart— her  hateful  duplicity,  her  execrable 
treachery  towards  the  instruments  she  used  and  sacri- 
ficed, her  cowardly  skulking  behind  those  instruments 
to  escape  the  censures  of  the  world.  This  was  the 
crowning  act  of  a  whole  fife  of  despicable  fraud  and 
hypocrisy ;  and,  from  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  this, 
Catherine's  more  absolute  power  set  her  free  :  Not  that 
the  Empress's  history  is  unaccompanied  with  traits  of  a 
like  kind.  When  her  troops  had  sacked  the  suburbs  of 
Warsaw,  and  consummated  the  partition  of  Poland  by 
the  butchery  of  thousands  of  her  victims,  she  had  the 
blasphemous  eflfrontery  to  celebrate  a  Te  Deum  in  the 
metropolitan  cathedral,  and  to  promulgate  an  address  to 
the  people,  professing  "  to  cherish  for  them  the  tender 
feelings  of  a  mother  towards  her  offspring."  It  vexes 
the  faith  of  pious  men  to  witness  scenes  like  these,  and 


THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE.  199 

not  see  the  fires  of  Heaven  descend  to  smite  the  guilty 
and  impious  actors. 

In  the  whole  conduct  of  their  respective  governments 
it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  greater  contrast  than  is  exhi- 
bited by  these  two  famous  princesses.  While  Cathe- 
rine sacrificed  every  thing  to  outward  show  in  her  do- 
mestic administration,  Elizabeth  looked  ever  and  only  to 
the  substance ;  the  former  caring  nothing  how  her 
people  fared  or  her  realms  were  administered,  so  she 
had  the  appearance  of  splendour  and  filled  the  world 
with  her  name  ;  the  latter,  intent  upon  the  greatest  ser- 
vice which  a  sovereign  in  her  circumstances  could  per- 
form, the  allaying  the  religious  dissensions  that  dis- 
tracted all  classes  of  her  subjects,  and  maintaining  her 
crown  independent  of  all  foreign  dictation.  Assuming 
the  sceptre  over  a  barbarous  people  scattered  through  a 
boundless  desert,  Catherine  found  the  most  formidable 
obstacles  opposed  by  nature  to  what  was  obviously  pre- 
scribed by  the  circumstances  of  her  position  as  her  first 
duty,  the  diflusing  among  her  rude  subjects  the  blessings 
of  civilisation ;  but  desirous  only  of  the  fame  which 
could  be  reaped  from  sudden  operations,  and  impatient 
of  the  slow  progress  by  which  natural  improvement 
must  ever  proceed,  she  overcame  not  those  obstacles, 
and  left  her  country  in  the  state  in  which  it  would  have 
been  whoever  had  filled  her  place.  Succeeding  to  the 
throne  of  a  nation  torn  by  faction,  and  ruled  by  a  priest- 
hood at  once  tyrannical  and  intolerant,  Elizabeth,  by 
wise  forbearance,  united  to  perfect  steadiness  of  pur- 
pose, by  a  judicious  use  of  her  influence  wheresoever  her 
eye,  incessantly  watchful,  perceived  that  her  interposi- 
tion could  help  the  right  cause,  above  all,  by  teaching 
each  sect  that  she  would  be  the  servant  of  none  while 
disposed  to  be  the  friend  of  all,  and  would  lend  her  sup- 
port to  that  faith  which  her  conscience  approved  without 
suffering  its  professors  to  oppress  those  of  rival  creeds, 
left  her  country  in  a  state  of  peace  at  home  as  remark- 
able and  as  beneficial  as  the  respect  which  her  com- 


200  THE  EMPRESS  CATHERINE. 

manding   talents  and  determined  conduct  imposed  on 
foreign  nations. 

The  aggrandisement  of  the  Russian  empire  during 
Catherine's  time,  at  once  the  monument  of  her  worst 
crimes  and  the  source  of  the  influence  ever  since  ex- 
erted by  her  successors  over  the  affairs  of  Europe,  has 
been  felt  by  all  the  other  powers  as  the  just  punishment 
of  their  folly  in  permitting  Poland  to  be  despoiled,  and 
by  none  more  than  those  who  were  the  accomplices  in 
that  foul  transaction.  It  is  almost  the  only  part  of  her 
administration  that  remains  to  signalise  her  reign ;  but 
as  long  as  mankind  persist  in  preferring  for  the  subject 
of  their  eulogies  mighty  feats  of  power,  to  useful  and 
virtuous  policy,  the  Empress  Catherine's  name  will  be 
commemorated  as  synonymous  with  greatness.  The  ser- 
vices of  Elizabeth  to  her  people  are  of  a  far  higher  order  ; 
it  is  probable  that  they  owe  to  her  the  maintenance  of 
their  national  independence  ;  and  it  is  a  large  increase  of 
the  debt  of  gratitude  thus  incurred  to  this  great  princess, 
that  ruling  for  half  a  century  of  troublous  times,  she 
ruled  in  almost  uninterrupted  peace,  while  by  the  vigour 
of  her  councils,  and  the  firmness  of  her  masculine  spirit, 
she  caused  the  alliance  of  England  to  be  courted  and 
her  name  feared  by  all  surrounding  nations. 

If,  finally,  we  apply  to  these  two  Sovereigns  the  surest 
test  of  genius  and  the  best  measure  of  success  in  their 
exalted  station — the  comparative  merits  of  the  men  by 
whom  they  were  served — the  German  sinks  into  insigni- 
ficance, while  the  Englishwoman  shines  with  surpassing 
lustre.      Among  the  ministers  who  served   Catherine, 
it  would  be  difiicult  to  name  one  of  whom  the  lapse  of 
forty  years  has  left  any  remembrance  :  but  as  Elizabeth 
never  had  a  man  of  inferior,  hardly  one  of  middling  ca- 
pacity in  her  service,  so  to  this  day,  at  the  distance  of 
between  two  and  three  centuries,  when  any  one  would 
refer  to  ihe  greatest  statesmen  in  the  history  of  England, 
he  turns  instinctively  to  the  Good  Times  of  the  Virgin 
Queen. 


APPENDIX. 


APPEiNDIX. 


I. 

Several  of  the  Sketches  contained  in  these  volumes 
have  already  appeared  in  print,  but  as  parts  scattered 
throughout  other  and  much  larger  works.*  But  great 
additions  have  been  here  made  to  some  of  them;  as 
George  III. ;  Lord  Chatham ;  Mr,  Perceval ;  Mr.  Can- 
ning; Mr.  Windham;  while  the  following  are  entirely 
new:  Lords  North;  Mansfield;  Thurlow ;  Loughbo- 
rough ;  Lord  Chief  Justice  Gibbs ;  Sir  Wm.  Grant ; 
Franklin  ;  Joseph  TI. ;  Catherine  II. ;  Gustavus  III. ;  and 
the  Remarks  on  Party. 

II. 

The  kindness  of  a  most  accomplished  and  venerable 
person,  the  ornament  of  a  former  age,  and  fortunately 
still  preserved  to  enlighten  the  present,  has  permitted  the 
insertion  of  the  following  interesting  note  : 

"  A  circumstance  attended  Lord  Chatham's  eloquent 
invective  against  our  employment  of  the  Indians  in  the 
American  war,  which  we  have  not  handed  down  to  us 
along  with  it,  but  which  could  hardly  fail  to  be  noticed 
at  the  time.  The  very  same  thing  had  been  done  in  the 
former  war,  carried  on  in  Canada  by  his  authority  and 
under  his  own  immediate  superintendence;  the  French 
had  arrayed  a  tribe  of  these  savage  warriors  against  us. 
and  we,  without  scruple,  arrayed  another  against  them, 

•  Four  only  of  the  shorter  Sketches  are  taken  from  the  late  work,  in 
four  volumes,  intituled,  "  Lord  Brougham's  Speeches,"  which  contains  a 
great  many  others. 


204  APPENDIX. 

This  he  thought  fit  to  deny  in  the  most  positive  manner, 
although  the  ministers  offered  to  produce  documents  writ- 
ten by  himself  that  proved  it,  from  among  the  papers  at 
the  Secretary's  office.  A  warm  debate  ensued,  and  at 
length  Lord  Amherst,  the  General  who  had  commanded 
our  troops  in  that  Canadian  war,  was  so  loudly  appealed 
to  on  all  sides,  that  it  compelled  him  to  rise,  and,  most 
unwillingly,  (for  he  greatly  respected  Lord  Chatham,) 
falter  out  a  few  words;  enough  however  to  acknowledge 
the  fact,  a  fact  admitted  generally  and  even  assumed  by 
the  opposition  lords  who  spoke  afterwards.  They  seemed 
to  lay  the  question  quietly  by  as  far  as  it  concerned  JiOrd 
Chatham's  veracity,  and  only  insisted  upon  the  difference 
between  the  two  wars,  the  one  foreign,  the  other  civil ; 
arguing  also,  that  we  might  have  been  under  some  ne- 
cessity of  using  retaliation,  since  the  French  certainly 
first  began  the  practice  so  justly  abhorred.  The  Annual 
Register  for  1777  states,  that  Mr.  Burke  took  the  same 
course  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

"  Upon  hearing  what  had  passed  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  Lord  Bute  exclaimed  with  astonishment,  '  Did 
Pitt  really  deny  it?  Why,  I  have  letters  of  his  still  by 
me,  singing  lo  Paeans  over  the  advantages  we  gained 
through  our  Indian  allies.'  Could  what  he  thus  said  have 
been  untrue,  when  it  was  almost  a  soliloquy  spoken  ra- 
ther before  than  to  his  wife  and  daughters,  the  only  per- 
sons present  ?  The  letters  he  mentioned  were  probably 
neither  official  nor  confidential,  but  such  common  notes 
as  might  pass  between  him  and  Lord  Chatham,  while 
still  upon  a  footing  of  some  intimacy. 

It  must  be  observed,  that  in  1777  Lord  Bute  had  long 
withdrawn  from  all  connexions,  lived  in  great  retire- 
ment, and  had  no  intercourse  whatever  with  the  people 
then  in  power." 

III. 

The   following   very  interesting   letter  is   from   the 


APPENDIX.  205 

youngest  and  only  surviving  daughter  of  Lord  North. 
All  connments  upon  its  merits  or  its  value  are  superflu- 
ous : — 

"  My  dear  Lord  Brougham, 

"You  mentioned  to  me  the  other  night,  your  intention 
of  writing  the  character  of  my  father,  to  be  placed 
among  some  other  characters  of  the  statesmen  of  the 
last  century,  that  you  are  preparing  for  the  press,  and  at 
the  same  time  stated  the  difficulty  of  describing  a  man 
of  whom  you  had  no  personal  knowledge.  This  conver- 
sation has  induced  me  to  cast  back  my  mind  to  the  days 
of  my  childhood  and  early  youth,  that  I  may  give  you 
such  impressions  of  my  father's  private  life,  as  those  re- 
collections will  afford. 

"Lord  North  was  born  in  April,  1733;  he  was  edu- 
cated at  p]ton  school,  and  then  at  Trinity  College,  Ox- 
ford; and  he  completed  his  academical  studies  with  the 
reputation  of  being  a  very  accomplished  and  elegant 
classical  scholar.  He  then  passed  three  years  upon  the 
Continent,  residing  successively  in  Germany,  Italy  and 
France,  and  acquiring  the  languages  of  those  countries, 
particularly  of  the  last.  He  spoke  French  with  great 
fluency  and  correctness  ;  this  acquirement,  together  with 
the  observations  he  had  made  upon  the  men  and  manners 
of  the  countries  he  had  visited,  gave  him  what  Madame 
de  Stael  called  V Esprit  Euroj)een,  and  enabled  him  to  be 
as  agreeable  a  man  in  Paris,  Naples,  and  Vienna,  as  he 
was  in  London.  Among  the  lighter  accomplishments 
he  acquired  upon  the  Continent,  was  that  of  dancing ;  I 
have  been  told  that  he  danced  the  most  graceful  minuet 
of  any  young  man  of  his  day  ;  this  I  must  own  surprised 
me,  who  remember  him  only  with  a  corpulent,  heavy 
figure,  the  movements  of  which  were  rendered  more 
awkward,  and  were  impeded  by  his  extreme  nearsight- 
edness before  he  became  totally  blind.  In  his  youth, 
however,  his  figure  was  slight  and  slim ;  his  face  was 

VOL.  II.  18 


206  APPENDIX. 

always  plain,  but  agreeable,  owing  to  his  habitual  ex- 
pression of  cheerfulness  and  good  humour ;  though  it 
gave  no  indication  of  the  brightness  of  his  understanding. 

"Soon  after  his  return  to  England,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Speck,  of  White- 
lackington  Park,  Somersetshire,  a  girl  of  sixteen  :  she 
was  plain  in  her  person,  but  had  excellent  good  sense; 
and  was  blessed  with  singular  mildness  and  placidity  of 
temper.  She  was  also  not  deficient  in  humour,  and  her 
conversational  powers  were  by  no  means  contemptible  ; 
but  she,  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  delighted  in  her  hus- 
band's conversation,  and  being  by  nature  shy  and  indo- 
lent, was  contented  to  be  a  happy  listener  during  his 
life,  and  after  his  death  her  spirits  were  too  much  broken 
down  for  her  to  care  what  she  was.  Whether  they  had 
been  in  love  with  each  other  when  they  married,  1  don't 
know,  but  I  am  sure  there  never  was  a  more  happy 
union  than  theirs  during  the  thirty-six  years  that  it  lasted. 
I  never  saw  an  unkind  look,  nor  heard  an  unkind  word 
pass  between  them;  his  affectionate  attachment  to  her 
was  as  unabated,  as  her  love  and  admiration  of  him. 

"  Lord  North  came  into  office  first,  as  one  of  the  Lords 
of  the  Treasury,  I  believe,  about  the  year  1763,  and  in 
1765  he  was  appointed  as  one  of  the  Joint  Paymasters.* 
In  1769,  he  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
some  years  after.  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  He  never 
would  allow  us  to  call  him  Prime  Minister,  saying,  there 
was  no  such  thing  in  the  British  Constitution.  He  con- 
tinued in  office  thirteen  years :  during  the  three  last  he 
was  most  anxious  to  retire,  but  he  suffered  himself  to  be 

*  An  anecdote  is  related  of  his  Pay  mastership  which  will  paint,  though 
in  homely  colours,  his  habitual  good  humour.  He  was  somewhat  disap- 
pointed at  finding  he  had  a  colleague,  who  was  to  divide  the  emoluments 
of  the  office,  which  was  then  chiefly  prized  for  its  large  perquisites.  The 
day  he  took  possession  of  the  official  house,  a  dog  had  dirtied  the  hall, 
and  Lord  North,  ringing  for  the  servant,  told  him  to  be  sure,  in  clearing 
the  nastiness  away,  that  he  took  half  of  it  to  his  colleague,  as  it  was  a 
perquisite  of  the  Joint  office. — Editou. 


APPENDIX.  207 

overcome  by  the  earnest  entreaties  of  George  the  Third 
that  he  should  remain.  At  length  the  decHning  majori- 
ties in  the  House  of  Commons  made  it  evident,  that  there 
must  be  a  change  of  ministry,  and  the  King  was  obHged 
reluctantly  to  receive  his  resignation.  This  was  a  great 
relief  to  his  mind  ;  for,  although  I  do  not  believe  that  my 
father  ever  entertained  any  doubt  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
American  war,  yet  I  am  sure  that  he  wished  to  have 
made  peace  three  years  before  its  termination.  I  perfect- 
ly recollect  the  satisfaction  expressed  by  n)y  mother  and 
my  elder  sisters  upon  this  occasion,  and  my  own  asto- 
nishment at  it ;  being  at  that  time  a  girl  of  eleven  years 
old,  and  hearing  in  the  nursery  the  lamentations  of  (he 
women  about  '  My  Lord's  going  out  of  power'  (viz.  the 
power  of  making  their  husbands  tidewaiters),  I  thought 
going  out  of  power  must  be  a  sad  thing,  and  that  all  the 
family  were  crazy  to  rejoice  at  it ! 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that  Lord  North  was 
perfectly  clean-handed  and  pure  in  money  matters,  and 
that  he  left  office  a  poorer  man  than  when  he  came  into 
it.  His  father  being  still  living  at  that  time,  his  income 
would  have  scantily  provided  for  the  education  and 
maintenance  of  his  six  children,  and  for  the  support  of 
his  habitual,  though  unostentatious  hospitality,  but  the 
office  of  Lord  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports  becoming 
vacant,  the  King  conferred  it  upon  him.  His  circum- 
stances, by  this  means,  became  adequate  to  his  wishes, 
as  he  had  no  expensive  tastes,  or  love  of  splendour,  but 
he  wa.s  thoroughly  liberal,  and  had  great  enjoyment  in 
social  intercourse,  which  even  in  those  days  was  not  to 
be  had  without  expense.  Lord  North  did  not  long  con- 
tinue out  of  office,  the  much  criticised  Coalition  taking 
place  the  year  following,  1783.  The  proverb  says,  '  Ne- 
cessity acquaints  us  with  strange  bedfellows;'  it  is  no 
less  true,  that  dislike  of  a  third  party  reconciles  adver- 
saries. My  eldest  brother  was  a  Whig  by  nature,  and 
an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Mr.  Fox ;  he,  together  with 


208  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Adam,  and  Mr.  Eden,  (afterwards  Lord  Auckland) 
were,  I  believe,  the  chief  promoters  of  the  Coalition.  My 
mother,  I  remember,  was  averse  to  it,  not  that  she  trou- 
bled her  head  with  being  a  Tory  or  a  Whig,  but  she 
feared  it  would  compromise  her  husband's  political  con- 
sistency. I  do  not  pretend  to  give  any  opinion  upon  this 
subject,  having  been  too  young  at  the  time  to  form  any,  and 
since  I  grew  up  I  have  always  been  too  decided  a  Whig 
myself  to  be  a  fair  judge.  The  ministry,  in  which  Mr. 
Fox  was  at  the  head  of  the  Foreign,  Lord  North  of  the 
Home  Office,  and  the  Duke  of  Portland  of  the  Treasury, 
lasted  but  a  few  months:  in  1784  Mi%  Pitt  began  his  long 
administration.  My  father,  after  he  was  out  of  office, 
attended  parliament,  and  sometimes  spoke  and  voted,  in- 
dependent of  the  opinions  of  his  new  allies ;  but  this 
made  no  difference  in  the  cordiality  of  their  friendship, 
which  remained  unimpaired  to  the  end  of  his  lile. 

"  I  will  now  attempt  to  give  you  my  impressions  of  my 
father's  style  of  conversation  and  character  in  private  life. 
His  wit  was  of  the  most  genuine  and  playful  kind;  he  re- 
lated {narroit)  remarkably  well,  and  liked  conversing 
upon  literary  subjects ;  yet  so  completely  were  all  these 
ingredients  mixed  and  amalgamated  by  good  taste,  that 
you  would  never  have  described  him  as  a  sayer  of  hon 
mots,  or  a  teller  of  good  stories,  or  as  a  man  of  literature, 
but  as  a  most  agreeable  member  of  society  and  truly  de- 
lightful companion.  His  manners  were  those  of  a  high- 
bred gentleman,  particularly  easy  and  natural;  indeed, 
good-breeding  was  so  marked  a  part  of  his  character, 
that  it  would  have  been  affectation  in  him  to  have  been 
otherwise  than  well-bred.  With  such  good  taste  and 
ffood  breeding,  his  raillerv  could  not  fail  to  be  of  the  best 
sort — always  amusing  and  never  wounding.  He  was  the 
least  fastidious  of  men,  possessing  the  happy  art  of  ex- 
tracting any  good  that  there  was  to  be  extracted  out  of 
anybody.  He  never  would  let  his  children  call  people 
bores  ;  and  I  remember  the  triumphant  joy  of  the  family, 


APPENDIX.  209 

when,  after  a  tedious  visit  from  a  very  prosy  and  empty 
man,  he  exclaimed,  '  Well,  that  man  is  an  insiifTerable 
bore !'  He  used  frequently  to  have  large  parties  of 
foreigners  and  distinguished  persons  to  dine  with  him  at 
Bushy  Park.  He  was  himself  the  life  and  soul  of  those 
parties.  To  have  seen  him  then,  you  would  have  said 
that  he  was  there  in  his  true  element.  Yet  1  think  that 
he  had  really  more  enjoyment  when  he  went  into  the 
country  on  a  Saturday  and  Sunday,  with  only  his  own 
family,  or  one  or  two  intimate  friends :  he  then  entered 
into  all  the  jokes  and  fun  of  his  children,  was  the  com- 
panion and  intimate  friend  of  his  elder  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, and  the  merry,  entertaining  playfellow  of  his  little 
girl,  who  was  five  years  younger  than  any  of  the  others. 
To  his  servants  he  was  a  most  kind  and  indulgent  master: 
if  provoked  by  stupidity  or  impertinence,  a  few  hasty, 
impatient  words  might  escape  him  ;  but  I  never  saw  him 
really  out  of  humour.  He  had  a  drunken,  stupid  groom, 
who  used  to  provoke  him ;  and  who,  from  this  uncommon 
circumstance,  was  called  by  the  children  '  the  man  that 
puts  papa  in  a  passion ;'  and  I  think  he  coniinued  all  his 
life  putting  papa  in  a  passion,  and  being  forgiven,  for  I 
believe  he  died  in  his  service. 

"  In  the  year  1787  Lord  North's  sight  began  rapidly  to 
fail  him,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  he  became 
totally  blind,  in  consequence  of  a  palsy  on  the  optic  nerve. 
His  nerves  had  always  been  very  excitable,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  anxiety  of  mind  which  he  suffered 
(luring  the  unsuccessful  contest  with  America,  still  more 
than  his  necessary  application  to  writing,  brought  on  this 
calamity,  which  he  bore  with  the  most  admirable  pa- 
tience and  resignation ;  nor  did  it  effect  his  general 
cheerfulness  in  society.  But  the  privation  of  all  power  of 
dissipating  his  mind  by  outwards  objects,  or  of  solitary 
occupation,  could  not  fail  to  produce  at  times  extreme 
depression  of  s|)irits,  especially  as  the  malady  proceeded 
from  the  disordered  state  of  his  nerves.     These  fits  of 

18* 


210  APPKNDIX. 

depression  seldom  occurred,  except  during  sleepless 
nights,  when  my  mother  used  to  read  to  him,  until  ise 
was  amused  out  of  them,  or  put  to  sleep. 

"In  the  evenings,  in  Grosvenor-square,  our  house  was 
the  resort  of  the  best  company  that  London  afforded  at 
that  time.  Mr.  Fox,  Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Sheridan,  occasional- 
ly;  and  Lord  Stormont,  Lord  John  Tovvnshend,  Mr.  Wind- 
ham, Sir  James  Erskine,  afterwards  Lord  Rosslyn,  his 
uncle,  then  Lord  Loughborough,  habitually  frequented 
our  drawing-room :  these,  with  various  young  men  and 
women,  his  children's  friends,  and  whist-playing  ladies 
for  my  mother,  completed  the  society.  My  father  always 
liked  the  company  of  young  people,  especially  of  young 
women  who  were  sensible  and  lively ;  and  we  used  to 
accuse  him  of  often  rejoicing  when  his  old  political 
friends  left  his  side  and  were  succeeded  by  some  lively 
young  female.  Lord  North,  when  he  was  out  of  office, 
had  no  private  secretary  ;  even  after  he  became  blind,  his 
daughters,  particularly  the  two  elder,  read  to  him  by 
turns,  wrote  his  letters,  led  him  in  his  walks,  and  were 
his  constant  companions. 

"  In  1792  his  health  began  to  decline:  he  lost  his  sleep 
and  his  appetite ;  his  legs  swelled,  and  symptoms  of 
dropsy  were  apparent.  At  last,  after  a  peculiar  un- 
easy night,  he  questioned  his  friend  and  physician,  Dr. 
Warren,  begging  him  not  to  conceal  the  truth  ;  the  re- 
sult was,  that  Dr.  Warren  owned  that  water  had  formed 
upon  the  chest,  that  he  could  not  live  many  days,  and 
that  a  few  hours  might  put  a  period  to  his  existence.  He 
received  this  news  not  only  with  firmness  and  pious  re- 
signation, but  it  in  no  way  altered  the  serenity  and 
cheerfulness  of  his  manners;  and  from  that  hour  during 
the  remaining  ten  days  of  his  life,  he  had  no  return  of 
depression  of  spirits.  The  first  step  he  took,  when  aware 
of  his  immediate  danger,  was  to  desire  that  Mr.  John 
Robinson  (commonly  known  by  the  name  of  the  Rat- 
catcher)    and   Lord  Auckland  might  be  sent  for;   they 


APPENDIX.  iill 

being  the  only  two  of  his  political  friends  whose  deser- 
tion had  hurt  and  ofi'ended  him,  he  wished  before  his 
death  to  shake  hands  cordially  and  to  forgive  them. 
They  attended  the  summons  of  course,  and  the  reconci- 
liation was  etfected.  My  father  had  always  delighted 
in  hearing  his  eldest  daughter,  Lady  Glenbervie,  read 
Shakspeare,  which  she  did  with  much  understanding 
and  etiect.  He  was  desirous  of  still  enjoying  this  amuse- 
ment. In  the  existing  circumstances,  this  task  was  a 
hard  one ;  but  strong  affection,  the  best  source  of  wo- 
man's strength,  enabled  her  to  go  through  it.  She  read 
to  him  great  part  of  every  day  with  her  usual  spirit, 
though  her  heart  was  dying  within  her.  No  doubt  she 
was  supported  by  the  Almighty  in  the  pious  work  of 
solacing  the  last  hours  of  her  almost  idolised  parent.  He 
also  desired  to  have  the  French  newspapers  read  to  him. 
At  that  time  they  were  filled  with  alarming  symptoms 
of  the  horrors  that  shortly  after  ensued.  Upon  hearing 
them,  he  said,  '  I  am  going,  and  thankful  1  am  that  I 
shall  not  witness  the  anarchy  and  bloodshed  which  will 
soon  overwhelm  that  unhappv  countrv.'  He  expired  on 
the  5th  of  August,  1792. 

"  Lord  North  was  a  truly  pious  Christian  ;  and  (al- 
though from  his  political  view  of  the  subject)  I  believe 
that  one  of  the  last  speeches  he  made  in  parliament  was 
against  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  yet  his  religion  was 
quite  free  from  bigotry  or  intolerance,  and  consisted 
more  in  the  beautiful  spirit  of  Christian  benevolence  than 
in  outward  and  formal  observances.  His  character  in 
private  life  was,  I  believe,  as  faultless  as  that  of  any 
human  being  can  be;  and  those  actions  of  his  public 
life  which  appear  to  have  been  the  most  questionable, 
proceeded,  I  am  entirely  convinced,  from  what  one  must 
own  was  a  weakness,  though  not  an  unamiable  one,  and 
which  followed  him  through  his  life,  the  want  of  power 
to  resist  the  influence  of  those  he  loved. 


212  APPE\D1X. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  lord,  gratefully  and   sincerely 

yours, 

"  Charlotte  Lindsay. 

"  Green-street,  February  the  8th,  1839." 

IV. 

ElhahetJi's  conduct  to  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots. 

The  whole  subject  of  Miiry's  conduct  has  been  in- 
volved in  controversy,  chiefly  by  the  partisans  of  the 
House  of  Stuart  after  the  Revolution,*  and  somewhat 
also  by  the  circumstance  of  the  Catholic  party  in  both 
England  and  Scotland  taking  her  part  as  an  enemy  of  the 
Reformed  religion.  Elizabeth's  conduct  towards  her  has 
also  in  a  considerable  degree  been  made  the  subject  of 
political  disputation.  But  it  may  safely  be  affirmed  that 
there  are  certain  facts,  which  cannot  be  doubted,  which 
indeed  even  the  most  violent  partisans  of  both  those  Prin- 
cesses have  all  along  admitted,  and  which  tend  to  throw 
a  great,  though  certainly  a  very  unequal  degree  of  blame 
upon  both. — Let  us  first  of  all  state  those  unquestioned 
facts. 

1.  It  is  certain  that  Darnley,  Mary's  second  husband, 
was  foully  murdered,  and  equally  certain  that  Mary  was 
generally  suspected,  and  was  openly  charged,  as  an  ac- 
complice of  the  murder,  if  not  the  contriver  of  the  crime. 

2.  Yet  it  is  equally  certain  that  instead  of  taking  those 
active  steps  to  bring  the  perpetrators  to  punishment,  re- 
quired both  by  conjugal  duty  and  by  a  just  desire  to 
wipe  ofTthe  stain  affixed  to  her  character,  she  allowed  a 
mere  mock  trial  to  take  place  which  outraged  every 
principle  of  justice,  while  she  refused  Lennox  the  father's 
offers  of  evidence  to  convict  the  murderers. 

*  This  Appendix  has  been  added  in  deference  to  the  sugfgestion  of  a 
friend,  whose  sound  judgment  and  correct  tuste  are  entitled  to  command 
all  respect,  and  who  considered  that  an  unjust  view  would  be  given  of 
Elizabeth's  conduct  if  no  addition  were  made  to  the  sketch  in  the  text. 


APPENDIX.  213 

3.  Bothwell  had  only  of  late  been  admitted  to  her  in- 
timate society;  he  was  a  man  of  coarse  manners  and 
profligate  character,  universally  accused  and  now  known 
to  have  been  the  principal  in  the  murder.  No  one  pre- 
tended at  the  time  seriously  to  doubt  his  guilt;  yet  imme- 
diately afler  the  event  she  married  him,  and  married  him 
with  a  mixture  of  fraud,  a  pretence  of  being  forced  to  it, 
so  coarse  that  it  could  deceive  nobody,  and  so  gross  as 
only  to  be  exceeded  by  the  still  grosser  passion  which 
actuated  her  whole  conduct. 

4.  That  he  was  married  when  their  intimacy  began,  is 
not  denied.  Nor  is  it  doubted  that  she  consented  to  marry 
him  before  his  former  marriage  had  been  dissolved. 

5.  The  divorce  which  dissolved  it  was  hurried  through 
the  Courts  in  four  days,  by  the  grossest  fraud  and  collu- 
sion between  the  parties.  Hence  Mary  was  as  much 
guilty  of  bigamy  in  marrying  him  as  was  the  Duchess 
of  Kingston  two  centuries  later;  for  the  Duchess  pro- 
duced also  a  sentence  of  separation  a  mensa  et  thoro  in 
her  defence,  obtained  with  incomparable  greater  forma- 
lity— but  obtained  through  collusion,  and  therefore  con- 
sidered as  a  nullity — and  she  was  accordingly  convicted 
of  the  felony. 

6.  These  acts  of  Mary  were  of  so  abominable  a  na- 
ture that  all  rational  men  were  turned  away  from  sup- 
porting her,  and  her  deposition  was  almost  a  matter  of 
course  in  any  Christian  or  indeed  any  civilised  country. 

But  as  regards  Elizabeth  : 

1.  When  Mary  took  refuge  in  England,  all  her  pre- 
vious misconduct  gave  Elizabeth  no  kind  of  title  to  detain 
her  as  a  prisoner,  nor  any  right  even  to  deliver  her  up  a 
prisoner  at  the  request  of  the  Scots,  had  they  demanded 
her. 

2.  In  keeping  her  a  prisoner  for  twenty  years  under 
various  pretexts,  Elizabeth  gave  her  ample  license  and 
complete  justification  for  whatever  designs  [she  might 
form  to  regain  her  liberty. 


214  APPENDIX. 

3.  The  conspiracy  of  Norfolk  looked  only  to  the  main- 
taining of  her  strict  rights,  the  restoration  of  her  personal 
liberty,  and  her  marriage  with  that  ill-fated  nobleman, 
which  she  was  willing  to  solemnise  as  soon  as  she  could 
be  divorced  from  Bothwell,  who  having  lived  for  somo 
years  as  a  pirate,  afterwards  died  mad  in  a  Danish  prison. 

4.  Babington's  conspiracy  included  rebellion  and  also 
the  assassination  of  Elizabeth ;  and  great  and  certainly 
very  fruitless  pains  are  taken  by  Mary's  partisans  to 
rebut  the  proof  of  her  having  joined  in  it.  She,  indeed, 
never  pretended  to  resist  the  proof  that  she  was  a  party 
to  the  conspiracy  in  gensral;  she  only  denied  her  know- 
ledge of  the  projected  assassination.  But  supposing  her 
to  have  been  also  cognisant  of  that,  it  seems  not  too  re- 
laxed a  view  of  duly  to  hold  that  one  sovereign  princess 
detained  unjustifiably  in  captivity  by  another  for  twenty 
years,  has  a  right  to  use  even  extreme  measures  of  re- 
venge. In  self-defence  all  means  are  justifiable,  and 
Mary  had  no  other  means  than  war  to  the  knife  against 
her  oppressor. 

5.  For  this  accession  to  Babington's  conspiracy, 
chiefly,  she  was  brought  to  trial  by  that  oppressor  who 
had  violated  every  principle  of  justice  and  every  form  of 
law,  in  holding  her  a  prisoner  for  twenty  years. 

6.  Being  convicted  on  this  trial,  the  sentence  was  exe- 
cuted by  Elizabeth's  express  authority;  although,  with  a 
complication  of  falsehood  utterly  disgusting,  and  which 
holds  her  character  up  to  the  scorn  of  mankind  in  all 
ages,  she  pretended  that  it  had  been  done  without  her 
leave  and  against  her  will,  and  basely  ruined  the  unfor- 
tunate man,  who,  yielding  to  her  commands,  had  con- 
veyed to  be  executed  the  orders  she  had  signed  with  her 
own  hand. 

The  pretence  upon  which  the  proceeding  of  the  trial 
may  the  most  plausibly  be  defended,  is  that  a  Foreign 
Prince  while  in  this  country,  like  all  foreigners  within  its 
bounds,  is  subject  to  the  municipal  law,  and  may  be  pun- 


APPENDIX.  215 

ished  for  its  violation.  This,  however  is  a  groundless 
position  in  law,  even  if  the  Foreign  Prince  were  volun- 
tarily licre  resident;  for  not  even  his  representative,  his 
ambassador,  is  subject  to  our  laws,  either  civil  or  crimi- 
nal, as  a  statute  declaratory  of  the  former  law  has  dis- 
tinctly laid  down,*  although  at  an  earlier  period  Crom- 
well hanged  one  for  murder.  But  if  it  be  said  that  this 
part  of  international  law  had  not  been  well  settled  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  at  all  events  it  was  well  known  then 
that  no  power  can  have  the  right  to  seize  on  the  person 
of  a  Foreign  Prince  and  detain  him  prisoner;  and  that, 
consequently,  if  so  detained,  that  Foreign  Prmce  owes 
no  allegiance  to  the  laws  of  the  realm. 

But  although  Elizabeth's  conduct  towards  Mary  Stu- 
art is  wholly  unjustifiable,  and  fixes  a  deep  stain  upon 
her  memory  (blackened  still  more  by  the  gross  falsehood 
and  hypocrisy  with  which  it  was  thickly  covered  over), 
it  may  nevertheless  be  said  that  she  merits  the  com- 
mendation of  having  acted  against  her  kinswoman  with 
open  hostility,  and  sacrificed  her  by  the  forms  at  least  of 
a  trial,  instead  of  procuring  her  life  to  be  privately  taken 
away.  A  little  reflection  will  remove  any  such  argu- 
ment used  in  mitigation  of  her  crime.  That  she  pre- 
ferred murder  by  due  course  of  law  to  murder  by  poi- 
son, was  the  merit  of  the  age  raiher  than  of  the  person. 
Two  centuries,  perhaps  one,  earlier,  she  would  have  used 
the  secret  services  of  the  gaoler  in  preference  to  the  pub- 
lic prostitution  of  the  judge.  But  she  knew  that  Mary's 
death,  if  it  happened  in  prison,  even  in  the  course  of  na- 
ture, would  always  be  charged  upon  her  as  its  author  ; 
and  she  was  unwilling  to  load  her  name  with  the  shame, 
even  if  she  cared  not  how  her  conscience  might  be  bur- 
dened with  the  guilt.  She  was  well  aware,  too,  of  the 
formidable  party  which  Mary  had  in  the  country,  and 
dreaded  not  only  to  exasperate  the  Catholic  body,  but  to 

•  The  Stat.  7  Anne,  c.  12. 


216  APPENDIX. 

furnish  them  with  the  weapons  against  herself,  which  so 
great  an  outrage  on  the  feelings  of  mankind  would  have 
placed  in  their  hands.  Besides,  she  well  knew  that  the 
trial  was  a  matter  of  easy  execution  and  of  certain  re- 
sult. She  was  delivered  over,  not  to  a  judge  and  jury 
acting  under  the  authority  of  the  law  in  its  ordinary 
course  of  administration,  but  to  forty  peers  and  privy 
councillors,  selected  by  Elizabeth  herself,  whose  very 
numbers,  by  dividing  the  responsibility,  made  their  sub- 
mission to  the  power  that  appointed  them  a  matter  of 
perfect  ease,  and  the  conviction  of  Mary  an  absolute  cer- 
tainty. In  every  view,  then,  which  can  be  taken  of  the 
case,  little  credit  can  accrue  to  Elizabeth  for  preferring 
a  mode  of  destroying  her  rival  quite  as  easy,  quite  as 
sure,  and  far  more  sate,  than  any  other:  Not  to  mention 
that  it  must  be  a  strange  kind  of  honour  which  can  stoop 
to  seek  the  wretched  credit  of  having  declined  to  com- 
mit a  midnight  murder,  rather  than  destroy  the  victim  by 
an  open  trial. 

If,  then,  it  be  asked  upon  what  grounds  Elizabeth's 
memory  has  escaped  the  execration  so  justly  due  to  it, 
the  answer  is  found  not  merely  in  the  splendour  of  her 
other  actions,  and  the  great  success  of  her  long  reign 
under  circumstances  of  extraordinary  difficulty,  but  ra- 
ther in  the  previous  bad  conduct  of  Mary — the  utter 
scorn  in  which  all  mankind  held  her  except  those  whom 
personal  attachment  or  religious  frenzy  blinded — the 
certain  effect  of  time  in  opening  the  eyes  of  even  those 
zealots,  when  her  truly  despicable  conduct  came  to  be 
considered — and  chiefly  in  the  belief  that  she,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  joined  in  the  assassination  of  her  own 
husband,  and  was  admitted  to  have  married  his  brutal  mur- 
derer while  his  hands  were  still  reeking  with  blood,  had 
also  been  a  part}'  to  a  plot  for  assassinating  the  English 
queen.  These  considerations  have  not  unnaturally  ope- 
rated on  men's  minds  against  the  victim  of  Elizabeth's 
crooked    and    cruel    policy :   and  it  is   an   unavoidable 


APPENDIX.  217 

consequence  of  sympathy  for  the  oppressed  being  weak- 
ened, that  the  hatred  of  the  oppressor  is  diminished  in 
proportion. 

The  foregoing  statements  have  proceeded  upon  the 
plan  of  assuming  no  facts  as  true  respecting  the  con- 
duct either  of  Mary  or  Elizabeth  excepting  those  which 
are  on  all  hands  admitted,  and  which  have  indeed  never 
been  denied,  either  at  the  time  or  in  the  heats  engendered 
by  subsequent  controversy.  The  result  is  against  both 
those  famous  Queens ;  loading  the  memory  of  the  one 
with  a  degree  of  infamy  which  no  woman  of  ordinary 
feeling  could  endure,  subjecting  the  other  to  the  gravest 
charges  of  perfidy  and  injustice.  But  it  would  be  giving 
a  very  imperfect  view  of  Mary's  conduct  were  we  to  stop 
at  these  admitted  facts. 

The  proofs  against  her  in  respect  of  Darnley's  mur- 
der, although  not  sufficient  to  convict  her  in  a  court  of 
justice,  are  quite  decisive  of  her  guilt,  when  the  question 
is  propounded  as  one  of  historical  evidence.  Indeed  it 
may  be  safely  affirmed,  that  no  disputed  point  of  his- 
torical fact  rests  upon  stronger  evidence.  The  argu- 
ments to  prove  the  letters  genuine  are  not  easily  resisted. 
Mr.  Hume's  admirable  summary  of  those  arguments  is 
nearly  conclusive.  The  other  concurring  circumstances, 
as  the  statements  of  Bothwell's  servants  at  their  execu- 
tion, are  also  very  strong.  But  above  every  thing,  her 
own  conduct  both  in  obstructing  all  search  after  the 
murderers,  and  in  immediately  marrying  their  ring- 
leader, seems  to  place  her  guilt  beyond  a  doubt.  Even 
this,  however,  is  not  all.  She  submitted  the  case  to 
solemn  investigation,  when  she  found  that  the  effects 
of  her  infamy  were  fatal  to  her  party,  clouding  over  all 
her  prospects  of  success,  or  even  of  deliverance ;  and  as 
soon  as  the  worst  part  of  the  charges  against  her  were 
brought  forward,  and  the  most  decisive  evidences  of 
her  guilt  adduced,  the  letters  under  her  own  hand,  she 
did  not  meet  the  charge  or  even  attempt  to  prove  the 

VOL.  II.  19 


218  APPENDIX. 

writings  forgeries,  but  sought  shelter  behind  general 
protestations,  and  endeavoured  to  change  inquiry  into  a 
negotiation,  although  distinctly  warned  that  such  a  con- 
duct of  her  case  was  flying  from  the  trial  to  which  she 
had  submitted,  and  must  prove  quite  demonstrative  of  her 
guilt. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  not  going  too  far  to  close  these  re- 
marks with  Mr.  Hume's  observation,  that  there  are  three 
descriptions  of  men  who  must  be  considered  bevond  the 
reach  of  argument,  and  must  be  left  to  their  prejudices — 
an  English  Whig,  who  asserts  the  reality  of  the  Popish 
plot;  an  Irish  Catholic,  who  denies  the  massacre  in  1641; 
and  a  Scotch  Jacobite,  who  maintains  the  innocence  of 
Queen  Mary. 

It  is,  however,  fit  that  a  remark  be  added  touching 
the  error  into  which  the  justly  celebrated  historian  has 
fallen,  and  which  shows  that  he  knew  very  little  of  what 
legal  evidence  is,  how  expertly  soever  he  might  deal 
with  historical  evidence.  After  enumerating  the  proofs 
adduced  at  the  trial  of  Mary's  accession  to  the  assassina- 
tion part  of  Babington's  plot,  namely,  copies  taken  in 
Walsingham's  office  of  correspondence  with  Babington : 
the  confessions  of  her  two  secretaries,  without  torture, 
but  in  her  absence,  and  without  confronting  or  cross-exa- 
mination ;  Babington's  confession,  and  the  confession  of 
Ballard  and  Savage,  that  Babington  had  shown  them 
Mary's  letters  in  cipher, — the  historian  adds,  that,  "  in 
the  case  of  an  ordinary  criminal,  this  proof  would  be 
esteemed  legal  and  even  satisfactory,  if  not  opposed  by 
some  other  circumstances  which  shake  the  credit  of  the 
witnesses."  Nothing  can  betray  greater  ignorance  of 
the  very  first  principles  of  the  law  of  evidence.  The 
witnesses  he  speaks  of  do  not  even  exist ;  there  is  nothing 
like  a  witness  mentioned  in  his  enumeration  of  proofs ; 
and  how  any  man  of  Mr.  Hume's  acuteness  could  fancy 
that  what  one  person  confesses  behind  a  prisoner's  back 
that  he  heard  a  third  person  say  to  that  prisoner,  or  rather 


APPENDIX.  219 

that  this  third  person  showed  him  ciphered  letters  not 
produced  of  that  prisoner,  could  be  any  thing  like  evi- 
dence to  affect  him,  is  truly  astonishing,  and  shows 
how  dangerous  a  thing  it  is  for  the  artist  most  expert 
in  his  own  line,  to  pronounce  an  opinion  on  matters 
beyond  it. 


END  OF  THE  FIRST  SERIES. 


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